Eduardo x Jon - You don't know what you have until you have lost it
by Dimwit 95
Summary: They really need to update the list of characters you wanna use... I wrote this in a day or so. I can only say that anyone who reads this fic, do it at your own risk because this tackles themes that-... I can not put in the genre panel for some reason... Just remember that this is a warning to y'all, read at your own risk if you have a weak sense of sanity.
1. 1) You fucked up big time

I've gotten into a new series, which is EDDSWORLD, lo and behold. Yeah, the main characters are Matt, Edd, and Tom, but I don't ship any of them. I like shipping Edd's rival Eduardo with Tom's rival (?) Jon. Eduardo's and Jon's _relationship_ , if you can call it that, is a bit strange to me, but also so full of potential. Jon is like an old dog, no matter how many times Eduardo KICKS him; he still sticks around, loyal to his master.

I've watched all the episodes (I think) and I have a pretty clear view of the 3 characters that are: Mark, Eduardo, and Jon.

I'm going to tell this tale from THEIR perspective and let Edd, Matt, and Tom be the side-characters. This thing will contain spoilers, it will continue from the end of the series and you should watch them all before you come back here:

(Eddisodes) youtube playlist?list=PL701BB5DC4DD878C0

Don't worry; they aren't that many, or that long. Go watch them then go back here and read my epic conclusion. ^^

Also, I may tweak a few plot points here and there, because- well, I'm a sadist. XD (Not really, but I can play one whenever I feel like it)

* * *

Eduardo, Jon, and Mark all sat in the kitchen; Wednesday, Mars the 9th. Eduardo was drinking a Diet Coke and checking his lists of contacts on his phone. Numbers of girls he had dated before but never got together with because they didn't live up to his sky-high expectations. "I don't remember any of these girls..." He nonchalantly remarked. Eduardo seriously believed that as long as he lived there could be no one else on the entire planet that was as good as him and would never be enough for him.

Good god, what a bore.

No girl he ever met had that thing he liked. Girls he met were strong and independent. While that was all in all good and what not, it was not something that Eduardo liked. He had a secret fetish for slavery sort of. Eduardo wanted his partner to be emotionally dependent on him and do everything he told her to do. Eduardo actually HAD someone in his life that _kind of_ leaned towards what he wanted in his potential love interest and that was-... _Jon_ -... _ew_... No, not by a long shot...

About his roommates; His roommates being his _slaves_ was something he liked thinking of them as, though it was something he'd rather not say out loud. Eduardo was the Alpha in the home, Mark the Beta and Jon the-... well, it almost seemed a little too much to think of him even as an Omega, but, yeah, that's what he was: The omega, a very irritating one at that.

Jon was a little uncomfortable with Eduardo's statement for some reason so he just distracted himself by nervously sipping on the straw of the small plastic bag containing tomato juice he was holding, shrunk in on himself and munched a bit on his sandwich. Mark lifted his gaze up from the newspaper that he was reading and looked at Eduardo questioningly with a raised eyebrow. "How many have you dated? They cannot all be bad?" Eduardo snorted and shook his head. For the beta to actually question the judgment of the alpha was absurd. "I went on several dates with one girl before moving onto the next, and I swear to you, none of them were worth the money I spent on them. Ladies- HAH! More like _puppies_! If I want a puppy, I'll GET a REAL puppy!"

Jon took a bigger bite of his sandwich and almost choked on it. He started coughing, stopped and drank some more tomato juice to wash it all down. "Don't bite off more than you can chew, Jon. If it gets stuck in your throat, I'm not taking you to the hospital. (Or, god forbid, give you CPR)." He thought the last part, because would Jon hear it, he'd never eat again. That was, of course, something that could not happen either because he'd probably die of starvation in his room and Eduardo did not want to, by any means necessary, take care of Jon's decaying corpse.

At first, there was rumbling outside: "What are they doing now?" Mark asked but didn't bother looking out the window. Jon didn't bother looking outside either; he just finished his sandwich and put the plastic bag of tomato juice in his inner pocket of his shirt. Now there was a sound of a machine gun going off. Eduardo let go of his Diet Coke; fuming, he walked over to their front door and opening it as gently as possible. Managing to calm down a bit after taking a deep breath he looked outside to see that nothing was burning in front of him. He attempted to ask, in the calmest manner possible: "Hey, what's all the racket?" though, it came out a bit more strained than he had wanted it to. Jon and Mark followed Eduardo out and stood beside him; Jon on Eduardo's right and Mark on Eduardo's left.

Out of nowhere, a missile or a torpedo-thingy came shooting in their direction. "That's not a racket, it's a rocket!" Jon remarked and Eduardo sighed inwardly; (Goddammit, Jon! I can SEE that!) Eduardo thought before; he, Jon and Mark all jumped out of the way to escape the deadly weapon. An explosion followed as the oval formed metal shell collided with their house and blew their home into smithereens.

Eduardo looked to his left and Mark was a few feet away from where Eduardo himself had landed. Eduardo looked to his left and saw Jon running over to Edd's lawn. Why he did that was beyond Eduardo, but, he couldn't think of that right now: He had to make sure his most, most important things where intact-... which they most likely were. Well, his house keys he had in his left pocket, even though he wouldn't really need them anymore. He had his phone in his inner pocket, lovely. His wallet was also in a pocket in his pants but on the opposite side of the house keys.

Eduardo eyed the robot in the air and narrowed his eyes. If he had some juice left he would go **_Numero Uno_** and kick its metal ass. When he had finished fantasizing the robot shot another missile, this time, out of its arm. It hit Edd's house and Eduardo couldn't help but smile. If Eduardo's house wasn't also destroyed, he would grind the fact that Edd's house just got demolished in Edd's face for years to come.

That's when 2 things cleared up for Eduardo. Firstly, the smoke faded away and secondly, Eduardo realized that; Jon ran over to Edd's lawn for some stupid reason. A cold grip strangled around Eduardo's heart and he held his breath... _what if Jon got hit_?

Eduardo has done nothing but pushing Jon around, insulting Jon left and right, hitting Jon himself and cursing Jon's existence openly in front of Jon's face. Why would he care about Jon's safety now of all moments? Shouldn't he be celebrating the fact that Jon might be potentially deceased? (A.N.: In "THE END part 1", Eduardo says to Jon: "Wish you were dead!" or something like that, so don't come tell me he's just a tsundere. It was pretty goddamn clear to me that Eduardo HIGHLY despised Jon, but when Jon dies, he realizes he has taken his _friendship_ with Jon for granted. Then and there, when Jon is dying in Eduardo's arms he sees that he will never be able to get the lost time back so that Eduardo can show Jon that he actually  DOES appreciate Jon's existence. In that scene Eduardo nearly cries.)

Eduardo noticed that the fence separating his lawn and Edd's lawn had a hole in it. Eduardo then saw a black and blue figure lying immobile in the grass a small distance away from the fence and Eduardo's blood ran cold. In the back of his mind, he knew who it was, yet he tried to tell himself that that still figure in the grass was Tom. Eduardo stood up on unsteady legs and stiffly moved his feet in the direction of the body in the grass and he didn't even have to go very close to recognize the flat hair and the shirt. Eduardo's feet took off into a sprint toward the immobile body, stopped in front of it and crouched down; it was Jon, Eduardo was sure of it. Eduardo turned Jon over and was met with several small cuts on Jon's face as well as a blood stain on his shirt staring back at him. Panic spread throughout Eduardo's body, he simply couldn't believe it. "Jon? Jon?! Speak to me, buddy! Say something!" Eduardo shook Jon's body softly, trying to make the body he was holding open its closed eyes. "Say something, you idiot!"

Jon opened his eyes just slightly and held his right hand up with a straightened index finger, what ingenious thing was he going to say now? "S- something." Jon mumbled and giggled, but only a second later, a final sigh escapes the light brown-haired one's lips and his hand fell limp into Eduardo's lap. But the smile; even in his dying moment, Jon was smiling to Eduardo. Even though Jon must hate Eduardo for everything Eduardo has ever done to Jon. Even if Eduardo had been cruel and beaten Jon until he was limping, Jon had found some reason worthy smiling for in front of Eduardo.

Jon had died smiling.

It hurt... It hurt a lot... A short moment passed which, in all honesty, felt like a century. Eduardo embraced Jon and let his shock quiet down before he could put his reaction into words: "I'm. So. Sorry..." Eduardo had a small flashback; always demeaning Jon and sometimes beating him. Jon was like an old loyal dog, always coming back no matter how often he was kicked by his owner... Eduardo had taken their friendship for granted. Eduardo had never really actually understood how great of a friend Jon really was. Jon saw past Eduardo's flaws, never looked down upon Eduardo because of them, and always forgave Eduardo when he should have left a long time ago. Jon was Eduardo's friend.

His **BEST** friend.

Tom shouted something from over where he was at which caught Eduardo's attention. Was that a harpoon-gun? Tom shot a harpoon into the chest of the robot and the robot crumbled like a house made of cards, then exploded. Eduardo clenched his right fist and shook it in the air; "Yeah! Good riddance!" He said and snorted. Looking down at Jon's body again he sighed and put his right hand on Jon's crook of his neck. That's when Eduardo noticed something. He must have had his palm on a blood vessel because he could feel something pulsating beneath Jon's skin.

Wait-... so... "He's still ALIVE?!" Eduardo smelled the supposed _blood_ on Jon's shirt: "... Tomato juice..." Eduardo felt his sorrow reforming quite rapidly to anger. "This little shit..." He hissed and let go of Jon whose body simply flopped down on the ground with a dull thud. "Fuck this." Eduardo muttered and steered his steps toward the real estate agency in town. Mark had gotten up to his feet and approached Eduardo: "Hey, where are you going? You know you left Jon-" He started but Eduardo cut him off with; "Sip it, I'm going to buy a new place for us to live, and I know I left Jon behind, that was _kind of_ the point, genius..." Mark scratched the back of his head and shot a brief look at Jon: "U-huh... Whatever you say..." Mark said nothing more and followed Eduardo all the way over to the real estate agency. Eduardo was HATING every step he had to take to get there.

When Eduardo and Mark had arrived Eduardo took a paper from a machine with the number 338 on it. He and Mark sat down on a couch and waited patiently for their turn... which was completely unnecessary because there was nobody else there... The number shown on the small digital screen on the wall clicked over to 338 from 337 after only a minute. Eduardo threw the ticket in a garbage bin and went up to the desk with an-... employee behind it that smelled of old cheese...

A whole shitload of repeats of what Eduardo wanted they finally settled on a house just beside an apartment complex. "We'll take it!" Said and done, now they were in a truck going to their ex-house where Jon was-... Jon was actually not in the grass passed out; he was looking frantically through all the dirt for something. Eduardo and Mark stepped out and closed in on the ruins; "What are you doing?" Mark asked and Jon held a dirty pillow in his hands. "I needed to get my favorite pillow from the house, I can't live without it!" Jon said with a smile on his face. But-... there was something wrong about that smile... It was so forced... and hollow... It was very different to the normal goofy smiles he usually plastered on his childish face.

Eduardo just sighed and rolled his eyes: "Yeah... Whatever... Is there anything that ISN'T destroyed?" Jon nodded and pointed at a pile he had made in the dirt with books and magazines. "I found Mark's favorite books and your porn collection." Mark lit up when Jon mentioned his favorite books and dove straight for the pile to pick his books out. Eduardo sighed in relief to his treasure being unharmed. "Good lord in heaven, I am grateful..." He muttered and headed for the pile as well to pick his things out.

For those things to be unharmed for the most part was because they were all put away. Eduardo's porn collection was hidden in a metal box with no lock (but a flip to close it and preventing the box from opening itself) under a floorboard in his room while Mark's books were put away in a package with 5 layers of plastic bags to prevent them from being dusty and otherwise get destroyed. The plastic bags were gone but the books were fine, maybe a little bit ashy but they were otherwise in a whole piece and unharmed. "Thank you, Jon, I cherished these books the most, you have my gratitude." Mark said and smiled at Jon who simply smiled that empty and hollow smile back and nodded.

No, Eduardo wasn't going to thank Jon. He was not going to sink that low. "Eduardo has fixed a new place and we're here to pick our old stuff up. Want to come with us in the truck? Or, you know, you can walk there if you want." Mark said to Jon and Eduardo roared inwardly: (Fuck everything!) He thought, sighed and grumbled something inaudible. "Oh! I would love to go by truck, can I, Eduardo?!" Jon exclaimed happily. Eduardo groaned and face palmed. "... Fine..." Jon squealed and in a jiffy, they were all on their way towards their new house.

It took some time to get used to the new home but they all got comfortable in the new environment they now resided in, though, still, it was all so familiar. Eduardo was still cruel towards Jon and the moments Jon had asked about that day when he had passed out in Eduardo's arms, Eduardo simply denied it and said that Jon must have dreamed because he would never do anything like that towards someone he hated. Eduardo had asked what Jon did on enemy territory that day but been denied his answer as well.

One day, precisely one year later, during lunchtime, Jon had accidentally washed bright laundry with a blood red towel, tinting all the; white things to pink - all the grey things into dark pink - light blue into plum/purple - green became grey (because red and green cancel each other out) - yellow became orange and so on. Eduardo was beyond angry; he pushed Jon towards a wall and hit Jon the hardest that he could manage in the left cheek. Jon spat out blood, his knees gave away and he fell to the floor. Eduardo started kicking Jon. Jon was curled up on the floor, whining, shielding his head with his hands but it didn't do much as Eduardo was strong enough to harm Jon even if he Jon was shielding himself.

Mark entered the room; "EDUARDO, WHAT THE FUCK-!" he shouted, hooked his arms under Eduardo's armpits and held the enraged man back. "LET ME GO, DAMMIT!" Eduardo roared and Mark tightened his grip behind Eduardo: "SHUT UP AND CALM DOWN FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE! DO YOU EVEN REALIZE WHAT YOU'RE DOING?!" Eduardo growled; "I'M-..." He stopped kicking the air and flailing around so much. In front of him lied a curled up form staring back at him with frightened eyes and blood on his lips. He looked like a scared animal, beaten, bloody, and white as a sheet. Eduardo's breathing calmed down and Mark let go of Eduardo carefully. Eduardo glared at Jon, snorted and went to the kitchen: "Goddammit..." He muttered and took a Diet Coke out of the fridge, popped the cap and throated the liquid in the can.

"Have you calmed down now?" Mark said behind Eduardo. Eduardo threw the empty can in the garbage bin and grabbed another Diet Coke, turned around to face Mark and there he stood; arms crossed and with a disdainful expression on his face. "What. Happened?" He asked with a freezing cold tone. "Jon colored my favorite white shirt pink, and several clothes of yours were also colored." Mark snarled at Eduardo and held his arms out to emphasize his point; "We can buy NEW ones! We're not poor! I get that you don't think that highly of Jon but this has to be the single, most ABSURD moment where you have definitively crossed the line! This is a new low, even for you!"

Eduardo hissed back at Mark, took his Diet Coke and headed out of their front door. Still angry, still wanting to deck the living shit out of Jon. Eduardo stopped in the park and sat down on a bench, sipping on the Diet Coke. He looked over to a group of kids playing catch with a dog. An old lady was reading a book while sitting on a picnic blanket under a tree. There were barely any clouds in the sky and the sun couldn't be shining brighter. The serenity was enough to empty Eduardo of the rest of the overflowing anger. He was still angry, but lesser than before.

The sun passed from the top of the sky to only a bit over the horizon and Eduardo had drained the last drops of Diet Coke a long ago. He stood up, threw the empty can in a garbage bin and started heading home. There was barely anyone outside now. Barely any cars and he was the only one on the road for walkers. Calm and quiet. He had calmed down to his usual mood finally, which was good. Maybe he could apologize to Jon for-... no... Eduardo felt good but not THAT good...

Eduardo entered the house and was immediately met up by Mark: "Oh? Jon isn't with you?" He asked, generally surprised. "No, why would he?" Simply hearing Jon's name made Eduardo lose his good mood. "He told me he was going out to find you and apologize." Mark explained with an eyebrow raised. "Then he'll be back soon probably." Eduardo said and passed Mark into the kitchen. Eduardo just looked at the refrigerator, hummed and decided not to eat dinner. He was tired and went straight to bed.

Waking up next morning Eduardo felt he had actually slept well for once. He went to the kitchen for breakfast and Mark was already up: "Where's Jon?" Eduardo asked because it was unusual to not see the parasite that invaded his life sitting there eating breakfast like he would do early in the morning. "I don't know, Eduardo, he never came home yesterday." Mark said, still with scorn in his eyes when meeting Eduardo's eyes. "Good, then maybe I can relax on a Jon free day." Mark thought nothing more of it. He sighed irritably, shook his head and continued the daily newspaper.

The rest of the day flowed past like water through a water drain. It was unbelievingly refreshing. Mark was making comments about Jon's absence but Eduardo completely ignoring them. He was free!

Rinse and repeat, for 6 more days.

"Eduardo, I'm starting to get worried." Mark said as he looked out a window in the living room. "Don't be, Diet Coke will not kill me." Eduardo said and chuckled. "Not you, imbecile. I meant Jon." Eduardo growled at Mark and their gazes met in a wild spark: "Don't call me an imbecile! Besides, you still don't have to worry; Jon probably found somewhere else to live because he doesn't like it here." Eduardo said and looked down at his Diet Coke with a smile. "He wouldn't have left his belongings if he had..." Mark mumbled, groaned and went in the direction of Jon's room.

Eduardo shut off the TV and closed his eyes. Relaxation was the best when the pest wasn't around.

The time passed from 11 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon. Everything was nice and quiet when suddenly Mark's cry cut through the air; "Eduardo! EDUARDO!" Eduardo rubbed his eyes and yawned: "Yeah, yeah, what is it?" Eduardo opened his eyes to a distressed Mark coming into the living room with eyes nailed to the pages of a thick notebook with no name on the front or the back. "You-... you should read this..." Mark said stiffly as the closed the notebook and threw it to Eduardo. The book landed in Eduardo's lap and he groaned: "Why? If it's one of Jon's goodnight stories, then I don't want t-" "No, I mean, you should REALLY read it." Mark cut Eduardo off before Eduardo was able to finish his sassy comment. "Read from the beginning to the end... There are 638 pages... start reading..." Eduardo cursed several times before he started reading the first page: " _Today was a good day!_ Oh dear god, is this his diary?" " **JUST READ IT, YOU INSUFFERABLE DICKHEAD!** " Mark screamed and pointed aggressively at Eduardo. "Okay! Alright! Geez..." Mark had never spoken up that way toward Eduardo before so this was definitively a first.

The pages started out joyful, how much Jon loved living life with his friends that were Mark and Eduardo. "I love my friends" and "I really, really want to be like them" and "they are my idols"- in all honesty, it was kind of sweet how highly Jon thought of Mark and Eduardo. But-... that was about 10 years ago... The days were written in a brief summary and all of them often on the same page. The only things separating the days were the dates and year. Only 1 and a half year later-... it started taking a dark turn... this was around the time where Eduardo started beating Jon...

And that wasn't even the scariest part, even if Eduardo hit Jon until he had nasty bruises, Jon still came back because-... he adored his seniors... He still thought of them as friends... Eduardo had a flashback to when he thought Jon died from that explosion, that moment that Jon had _died_ smiling... Even if he was in immense pain, enough to pass out, he still chose to smile... 5 years ago from the current year Jon admitted in his texts that he ignored the pain the best he could just so that he could be with his friends. Seeing the flaws in both Mark and Eduardo, and a fuckton of flaws in himself as well, but seeing past all of them... Not judging anybody... Still thinking of his abusive roommate as his best friend... Jon concealed most of the bruises with makeup to not attract the attention of the authorities in case he was to go out or their rivals. Having them reporting Eduardo, his best friend for domestic abuse was not something he wanted to risk.

Now he was on the last pages, the time had passed from 1 in the afternoon to 4 in the afternoon and Eduardo could barely read another word. Now it was evident in Jon's texts that he had given up. He had had enough of the constant beating, the humiliation, the cruelty, and now he was wording _him wanting to die_ in very disturbing yet subtle ways. Now, for the last page, and at this point, Eduardo was an emotional WRECK:

"Date: My last day

I screwed up... again... Eduardo beat me up... again... but worse this time than any other time before this. I have big bruises forming everywhere on my body; my head - my neck - my back - my chest - my stomach - my arms and my legs, maybe a few other places that I haven't checked yet. I have been wearing long sleeved shirts and long pants every day now, even in the summer instead of t-shirt and shorts but Eduardo and Mark never ask why, but that is good, I don't want them to know I've been cutting myself for the past 6 years.

I have given up for the last time. I'm going to quit this game and delete my save... I have given up... For the last time..."

Using a gaming reference to hide something, it was clever, creative even, Eduardo had to give him that. But by _quitting the game_ and _deleting the save file_... Eduardo could imagine what that meant... Just as Eduardo closed Jon's notebook- or diary, Mark came back in still looking as terrified as ever. Only now, Eduardo was the mirror image of Mark; just as terrified. "I found this together with the diary in Jon's _favorite_ _pillow_..." Mark said and held up a small knife with dried blood on it. The _favorite pillow_... _Of course_... "By the way, did you-... have you finished reading..." Mark whispered and pointed at the diary in Eduardo's hands. Eduardo stood up and put the diary on the table in front of him: "We need to find him." Eduardo said and as the alpha of the home, he led the team of 2, not 3, out of the home.

Eduardo had noticed since he moved that they had conveniently moved into the house that was right next to with the apartment complex that Tom, Edd, and Mat lived in but he decided to ignore them all for the most part. Now, he needed their attention more than ever.

And he was lucky; they were all outside flying kites. What Eduardo had said here naturally would be _LOSERS!_ but now he needed their help so he would have to put away the teasing. "Hey! Edd, Matt, and Tom! Have you seen Jon?!" The named three became visibly surprised being called after their given names by someone who always called them things other than their real names. "I thought you didn't like him?" Matt asked and looked in confusion at Edd that responded to Matt by shrugging. "Doesn't matter now, have you seen him or not?!" Mark said and gestured wildly, desperately with his hands. "Uh, yeah-" Edd began but Eduardo cut him off: "When?! WHEN AND WHERE?!" Tom pointed at the road and explained: "Here, about, a week ago, he was heading into town." Mark rolled with a hand in the air, a gesture for Tom to continue; "Did he say what he was going to do there? Did he tell you SPECIFICALLY where he was going? Did he tell you ANYTHING at all?!" Tom put his index finger on his lips and narrowed his eyes, thinking, remembering; "Well, no, when I asked he just said _I'm going away_. I asked _where_ and then he just said _away_ again. Why? Are you looking for him?"

 _Away_... ** _Away_**... Eduardo and Mark looked at each other in horror, then Eduardo broke the silence; " _Holy shit_... Come on Mark-!" Eduardo said and they both sprinted towards town. "What-? Where are you going?! Why are you looking for Jon?!" Edd asked and Mark stopped, turned back to their rivals and shouted: "BECAUSE HE'S GOING TO **COMMIT SUICIDE** , IF HE HASN'T ALREADY!" Mark then took off after Eduardo again trying to catch up to his roommate. Their rival trio was left speechless, they remained speechless for 3 full minutes and their kites fluttered to the ground as they lost air. The first to break the silence was Edd: "Well-... damn..."

Eduardo and Mark called for Jon, looked everywhere earning confused looks from strangers which they cared little for if not at all. Eduardo and Mark made a report to the police to investigate a disappearance. Mark even asked news to report on Jon's disappearance, which they did. Eduardo asked newspapers to put up the report, which they did. Sometimes, the world can be kind.

At the end of that same day, around 10 pm, they were exhausted. They had been looking all over town and not even a single glimpse of Jon. Eduardo went inside first, kicked off his shoes and leaned on the wall; he was tired, but he was not going to become any less determined to find Jon. Mark after him and closing the door after him gently. Slipping out of his shoes he was just about to lock the door when Eduardo stopped his hand from turning the switch; "Don't-... If he... I dunno..." Eduardo didn't finish his sentence and began avoiding eye contact, but Mark knew what he wanted to say. "Came back, you mean?" Mark finished and looked at Eduardo with dread in his eyes. "I doubt it... But if it makes you feel better- then by all means... I'll leave it open..." Mark said in a sorrowful tone as he headed for the bathroom to get ready to go to bed.

Mark went to bed when he was ready. Eduardo took the armchair from the living room and put it in front of the door. Sitting in it, he decided to wait until maybe Jon came back or prevent a robbery if it wasn't Jon but some stranger. But no, the whole night passed and when the morning came, Eduardo had black rings under his eyes but there had been no other activity other than Eduardo breathing by the door. Eduardo went to the refrigerator and took a Diet Coke, throated everything and threw the empty can in the garbage bin. "Stayed up all night?" Eduardo turned around to see a refreshed but still worried Mark in the kitchen doorframe wearing a bathrobe. "... Yeah..." Eduardo muttered and sighed. "We'll continue looking today, right?" Eduardo asked and choked a yawn. Mark tilted his head to the side a bit before responding; "If you think you can do that in your condition, then, yes, of course."

Another 7 days followed with the same searching for Jon and they were beginning to become really desperate. They had called Jon's number several times and hoped for him to answer, but every time it just went straight to the voicemail. Eduardo stared at the screen of his phone with Jon's smiling face as the thumbnail of the contact and a title of Jon's name below it. "Jon-... where are you?" Eduardo asked out loud no louder than a whisper. Mark did hear Eduardo whispering, but Mark decided not to respond because 1) the question was not his to answer and 2) he didn't know the answer anyway. They had gone through Jon's things in his room for the umpteenth time by now. Eduardo looked through Jon's childish sketches to maybe get kind of an idea where Jon might have gone. Eduardo had stayed up 3 nights in a row now, 1) because he hoped to meet Jon walking through the door and 2) because he was unable to sleep otherwise.

"Ed- EDUARDO! I- I THINK I KNOW WHERE HE IS!" Mark's hopeful cry of joy behind Eduardo took Eduardo by storm; " **YOU DO?!** " Eduardo responded and crawled over to Mark on all fours, smiling like an idiot- because they might have found out where Jon was hiding. Mark held a paper with-... a list of 3 different busses, exact times where they would arrive at the bus stop outside of the library, the amount of minutes they would take for a trip to-... wherever and how many stops each ride had to take at other bus stops. "Eduardo! Think now, help me here, what do all these busses have in common?!" Mark asked and bit his thumb. "They're all colored the same way? They all stop at that bus stop outside the library? They all go at a snail's pace?" Eduardo slurred as he counted all the things he named on his fingers. Eduardo was honest about the stupid answers though, which was probably the funniest part. But nobody could blame Eduardo for his delusion, he hadn't slept in 3 days and he had skipped eating as well.

"Yes, partially; they all stop at the bus stop in front of the library. However, they all also stop at a bus stop in the middle of the woods-..." Eduardo and Mark looked at each other in silence for a moment. Eduardo smiled and his pupils grew a bit as the realization came to him: "He could have decided to go hiking, maybe camping to get away from this for a while?" Eduardo suggested and gestured with his hand to refer to the walls around them. They both looked at the paper again and a collective sigh of relief filled the room. "Of course, he should be out there still. _Quitting the game and deleting the save_ could have been a reference to him wanting to start over? Come on, I'll get my bus ticket. You go get dressed; we're going to get him." Mark said, smiled and laid his arm around Eduardo's shoulders. "Yeah, I'll be right back." Eduardo stood up and headed for his room. These were the best news all week concerning Jon, no doubt.

(Btw, where I live we have a card which we load with money that they beep on a bus or train, withdrawing money for a ride. I don't know how it is where these individuals live but I'm going to take the concept of the card since I don't know any other)

Eduardo had only the white shirt on him because he left the green outer layered shirt in his room. He became hot and sweaty during their search so he took it off and hadn't put it back on since 5 days ago or so. Eduardo slipped his arms into the shirt and buttoned it up. He went for their front door where Mark was already standing with his bus ticket in hand. Eduardo put on his shoes, opened the door and went outside. Eduardo being outside first and Mark second was a habit that was as hard to kill as a cockroach, but Mark never really opposed Eduardo about that matter. They both got to the bus stop and sat down on the small bench but didn't have to wait long until one of the 3 busses came that Jon supposedly took. They both got on and Mark paid for 2 rides with the bus card. They both sat down closest to the doors out with Eduardo at the window seat. Eduardo just stared apathetically out of the window and Mark was worried he might pass out as tired and as hungry as he should be. Mark sighed quietly, put his hand on Eduardo's knee to gain his friend's attention; Eduardo looked at Mark confusedly, Mark smiled narrowly and nodded: "I'm sure he's fine, you can relax." Mark said in a hushed voice. Eduardo smiled too and nodded back: "Hopefully he won't be too scared when we come to get his ass." Mark giggled and put the hand he had on Eduardo's knee on Eduardo's shoulder: "Don't say it like that."

The bus stopped at their destination and they got off the vehicle. The bus drove off leaving the 2 males staring into the forest. "Now for where we think he went off... And I mean in what direction he went into the forest, on the side right in front of us or if he went to the other side of the road behind us." Mark said and looked at the forest on the other side of the road over his shoulder while Eduardo was staring into the forest in front of them. They were out in the middle of nowhere, this was a perfect place for camping or hiking- or, _clearing one's head_ would be more accurate. "I think we should go this way, I remember this stop from when I was a kid and there's a place here where teachers take their classes sometimes. Up ahead there should be an open area with a few tables, a fireplace and a cabin or something, I dunno. The pictures looked kinda old and I'm not sure my memory serves me correctly, but that's at least how it should look, he should be there; in the cabin or having built his own place out of sticks. Out of the 2, I think it might be the latter because the cabin should be locked up." Eduardo explained and a hopeful smile crept on his lips.

Mark nodded and crossed his arms; "Yeah, that sounds just like Jon, come on, let's go get him back." Mark said and they both walked on a small pathway to a clearing, the open area mostly built for camping and/or class expeditions.

When they came out of the woods, though, what they saw was bone chilling. The cabin was old, torn and graffiti sprayed on the walls. 2 out of the 3 picnic tables were laying in positions that they would have been in if a giant had flipped them over. One of the picnic tables was still standing and there was a cell phone on it, the screen on the table and backside up and a small rock behind it. But the most frightening thing of all, no Jon as far as the eye could see. "Mark-..." Eduardo managed to say through his clenched teeth. "... That is Jon's cell phone, isn't it?..." Eduardo finished in an unsteady voice. Mark ran up to the table while Eduardo was frozen in place. Mark studied the picnic table; the cell phone had been standing upright being supported by the boards of the table and the rock that had been placed behind it. The wind had probably knocked the phone over. The battery was dead but it hadn't been raining so the cell phone wasn't broken, it just needed some energy.

Mark looked at Eduardo who was still staring forward into the dead air. "It is his phone, I recognize this little keychain." Mark said and moved the phone in his hands so that the keychain jingled slightly. The _keychain_ was a short thread attached to the top right corner of the device by a little patch of tape that surprisingly hadn't fallen off yet. In that thread, there was a copy of the key to their house. But although Mark had found some piece of evidence Eduardo still refused to avert his eyes from whatever was in front of him. " _What is_ _that_?" Eduardo asked, pointed in front of him and Mark followed Eduardo's finger to whatever he might be referring to. There was nothing there, not on the ground, not in the sky, and not anything in the water that was beyond the cliff that separated the water from the 2 humans. Then it cleared up to Mark what Eduardo was pointing at. "... No... The **cliff**!" as if on cue both Mark and Eduardo ran for the cliff to look down at the unforgivingly pointy rocks where water splashed in a pulsating pace. **Fear** , staring right back at them.

Down there he was; Jon, in an unnatural position, drenched from the waves hitting him repeatedly. His arms and legs twisted, and his torso and neck crooked, his face bruised and the smell of death wafting up to Mark and Eduardo on top of the cliff. Mark became nauseous and Eduardo started swaying back and forth, what he saw frightened him more than falling off of the cliff himself. Eduardo's heart rate had sped up but his blood had run cold. Mark put his hand on Eduardo's shoulder to steady the male and prevent him from falling. Mark then stated: "We-... we should call 911..." Eduardo swallowed and felt a thick lump in his throat from saliva or bile or something he did not yet know. But, quite frankly, he didn't care. "Yeah... We should..." He responded and let go of a breath he didn't know that he had been holding.

Mark used his own cell phone and called 911; an ambulance and 2 officers in a police car came to the place (stopped on the bus stop outside the forest); took photos for investigation, Jon's cell phone for evidence and then they used a rope to lift Jon's body up from the rocks and back up on the cliff. Eduardo was speechless, he was in shock, denial, he was angry at himself because he couldn't blame anyone else than himself for what he was currently looking at. Mark put a hand on Eduardo's shoulder to comfort his friend: "I don't think this is your fault, don't go insane on me here." Eduardo's denial and shock rapidly changed into rage. He turned towards his comrade and grabbed Mark by his collar and shook him violently: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN _YOU_ _ **THINK**_ THIS **_ISN'T_** MY FAULT?! THIS **IS** MY FAULT! IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN!" Eduardo felt something inside his chest stirring, reforming. What it was, he didn't know, but it hurt. He put his right hand on his shirt where his heart was supposed to be located, if he still had one that was, and clutched his fingers around the fabric. "IT'S **MY** FAULT HE ISN'T HERE NOW! IT'S **MY** FAULT WE'RE EVEN HERE! IT'S-!... It's **my** fault!... God-fucking-dammit..." Eduardo fought his tears to stay back behind his eyelids, is what he would want to admit, but the truth was that he was too much in shock and anger for the tears to come out. "Eduardo-" Mark began but Eduardo cut Mark off before Mark was able to say anything else: "Shut up..." He deadpanned and sighed. "... We'll follow the officers back to the station for questioning and then we'll visit the morgue..." Eduardo added and looked at Jon's pale body through his peripheral view.

So, the body was put in the ambulance that drove off. Eduardo and Mark sat in the backseat of the police car and they were off to the police station. There they were questioned; about Jon, about his death, about how life looked like before he ran away, about the diary which Eduardo was keeping in his pants in his left pocket, and lastly; the cell phone. "The phone was supported to stand up so I think he needed to film his-... final moments with the camera. Though, the battery was dead when we found it." Mark said, in fact, he did all the talking because Eduardo chose to not speak at all. Not even respond to yes or no questions. "We have a charger for this brand and model, we should give it some energy and give whatever he might have been filming a watch." The officer said. She stood up and looked through a drawer, picked up a charger and put the small end into the phone but the other USB end to a computer. "We can watch the video on a bigger screen like this, come over both of you." Mark looked at Eduardo, he still hadn't said anything but he stood up and moved his chair over to the screen and Mark followed.

A folder opened with different colorful pictures and other brighter looking videos, but-... the last one... The sky was gray; Jon was standing close to the camera, seemingly adjusting its position, and good lord this was only the thumbnail! The still image! Mark looked at Eduardo who was silently watching the thumbnail and what little they could see of Jon on that small image. Eduardo looked like he wanted to close his eyes or look away but forced himself not to. Mark sighed and nodded: "We're ready." He said and swallowed. The officer opened the video to full screen (the computer screen was quite big, so the full screen became a REALLY BIG screen) and played the video:

Jon was adjusting the telephone to stand with the stone behind it to keep the phone upright. Bruises had already started appearing on his face, BIG ones. "I've put the timer on 3 minutes, so this video will most likely be just a 3 minutes waste of your time. Sorry in advance." He said and ran out towards the edge of the cliff. The way he worded the span of the video didn't sit well with either of the two men watching the video. "Here I am, Eduardo, I hope you're happy now that I'm finally out of your life." Eduardo could do nothing else other than shaking his head slowly. Yes, maybe he wanted less and less to do with Jon because of how annoying Eduardo found Jon to be, but this was not the solution he was imagining... Or-... maybe he had? Suddenly, Jon hit himself, punched his own face, which of course wasn't that hard since he was so very, very weak.

"You like seeing me in pain, right? See? Here, I hurt myself just for you. Does this make you happy? If me hitting myself makes you happy, then take it all in! Look at the pain I'm in!" Jon said some other things throughout the video but Mark and Eduardo were no longer listening. Watching Jon's war against himself hurt too much to see but impossible to look away from. "Oh, and the time is almost up-" Jon turns around, facing the endless amount of water: "Mark, Eduardo, I'm sorry I wasn't more. I'm sorry I was always less. I'm sorry that you had to put up with me for all these years. I'm sorry my existence bothered you so much and caused you so much trouble. Oh, and you guys-..." He turned briefly towards the camera again with what seemed to be tears in his eyes: "Don't come looking for me ok?" Jon turned his head back to the water, his shoulders rose and lowered in taking-a-deep-breath kind of motion. Then, he jumped; Eduardo stopped breathing and stiffened. There was a single second of silence in the video that was followed by thud and a snapping noise. Like someone walking on dry sticks- no... More like-... **bones breaking**... And then the video ended... Both Eduardo and Mark knew exactly what happened so nobody said anything and the officer was just as shocked as they were.

"I... I'm so sorry..." The officer said but didn't look at the 2 men beside her. She knew this was hard on them. "... I think we're done here... Let's go to the morgue..." Mark said, took Jon's phone and they both stood up. The officer didn't stop them as they left because she didn't feel like she could do that to them. Her boss came into the room and started shouting at her but his words just went through her. What she had seen, out of all the suicide messages-... this was the single one, most disturbing video she had ever seen. She had seen many confession videos. Confessing to someone they love about their feelings and then shooting themselves, all caught on camera. But this... The **bones breaking** that loudly... That sound was truly _sickening_...

Eduardo and Mark made their way by bus towards the hospital since Mark had his bus card on him still. Eduardo was still tired as all hell but he had to keep moving, he couldn't quit halfway. Quitting now would be the greatest of dishonors he could ever make to Jon. No amount of beating could be as disgraceful as not seeing Jon off to the afterlife.

When they had arrived at the hospital they exited the bus with their heads lowered in shame, entered the building from the back and found their way to the morgue. A room full of small, square formed doors, doors of death. A nurse approached them holding a bunch of papers: "You 2 are the ones who called us about this-" she stopped and checked through her papers she had been holding before she finished; "Jon, correct?" Eduardo said nothing so Mark decided to speak up: "Yes, we are here to-..." Just what were they doing there? "Say goodbye?..." The nurse said in a quiet downhearted voice, she had been in this exact situation many times probably but yet never had been able to really get used to or deal with the death of a loved one. Mark nodded and the nurse sighed. She looked through a few other papers before she asked: "Maybe you would want to know what happened to him?" Eduardo looked up at the nurse from the floor with wide eyes and Mark was gaping; "Want to know what _happened_ you say?!" Mark asked, baffled as to how they would be able to know what happened to Jon as he died. Eduardo and Mark had heard it on the video taken by the cell phone-... Jon probably broke his neck though, so he must have died instantly. The nurse nodded briefly and started reading from the papers:

"The body fell on the stones, breaking 9 ribs, his right upper arm, and his left thigh." The nurse began listing up a few other things Jon broke and about internal bleeding in Jon's head and torso. Every word was like a papercut on Eduardo's heart, Mark noticed the pain Eduardo was in; Mark had to shut her up somehow! "Not important right now, what I want to know is when he was presumed deceased." Mark said and clenched his fists. The nurse' face contorted itself into-... into disgust blended with the expression one tend to have when there is something one would want to keep unsaid. " **The fall did not kill him...** " Like a punch to the face, the words lay heavily in the air and the atmosphere around them grew tighter around their bodies, thick and heavy as lead. "... Can we see him?..." Mark asked and looked back at Eduardo again who was white as a sheet. The nurse nodded and walked in the direction from which she had come and said; "Come, I'll bring you to him."

The nurse stopped and opened one of the doors and pulled out a body on a metal board that was covered with a blue-greenish paper-like blanket. The nurse pulled away the sheet a bit and revealed Jon's pale but bruised face with half lidded eyes and mouth just slightly open. "Ok..." Mark began. "When and how did he die?" It was a question both he and Eduardo had on their minds now. "Um, he had most probably not died because of the injuries, he most likely starved to death." Eduardo could feel his legs becoming weaker. Mark wanted to clarify the starvation part; "Doesn't humans die of starvation after 3 weeks without food? And shouldn't he have died because of the internal bleeding?" "The internal bleeding was too small of a matter to be fatal. Without water, a human dies after 3 days approximately or something like that depending on the circumstances. Without food, a human dies after approximately 3 weeks. How long has Jon been gone and has he been eating before he disappeared?" Mark bleached and Eduardo was silently staring at Jon. "He has been gone for 2 weeks, but I think I heard him throwing up in the bathroom a few times since 5 and a half weeks ago or so..." Eduardo stared with eyes filled with terror at Mark; he was about to ask why Mark didn't tell Eduardo about it earlier, but it was clear to Eduardo that at that point he would probably not have cared... So-... Had Jon close to his disappearance gotten bulimia? Awful, just, awful...

Suddenly someone came running into the morgue; it was their rival-trio. "Eduardo!" Edd called with audible concern in his voice. "We heard you found Jon and- oh..." The 3 males stopped a short distance away from Mark and Eduardo and simply stared at Jon's deceased body on the metal bed. "I'll- I'll just leave you alone with him..." The nurse said and went over to one of the pathologists and started speaking inaudibly with the other female. Eduardo put his hand on the paper-like blanket that was swept over Jon's body and pushed it aside just a bit to look at Jon's arm. As the dairy had described, the forearm had a pattern of long and thick scars and some of them were still pretty fresh (well, 2 weeks fresh). Eduardo pulled the paper blanket down to expose Jon's torso; Jon was undressed, probably for the pathologists to analyze him... Jon-... he was... He was extremely thin and his broken bones were visible through his skin- in fact, all of his bones were pretty fucking visible through his skin, even the unbroken ones. He was also colored in a bruised spotted pattern. So many bruises and some of them were probably because of Eduardo's kicking. Jon had told Mark he was going to go apologize to Eduardo when in reality he was on his way to the cliff Eduardo and Mark found him at 2 weeks later.

Eduardo put his hand on the stiff and cold body, shaking it as if attempting to wake Jon up, but Jon wasn't sleeping; he was dead. "Jon..." Eduardo finally managed out with a heavy heart, the first word he had said in a good while now. "I'm sorry..." Eduardo's legs started giving away and he slowly sank down to the ground. " _I'm so sorry_..." His voice cracked and tears finally started rolling down his cheeks. What was it? In a total of 9 years, Jon had been suffering. And Eduardo didn't even know. Back then, did he even care? Well, no, but he should have. " _I'm so, so, so sorry... Come back, please..._ " Eduardo began pleading, pleading to a dead body to come back to life. Everyone that was in the morgue came to observe the heart-wrenching scene. The rival-trio was quiet, what could they say in a moment like this?

Eduardo remembered why Jon had left from the beginning; it was about the discoloring of the clothes because of the scarlet red towel that Jon washed together with the bright laundry. " _It's ok, we can just buy new clothes, just-..._ " Bargaining was not going to help now, and Eduardo knew that, yet there he was, trying to ask a dead body nicely to come back to life. " _Please come back..._ " Eduardo retracted his hands from Jon's body and covered his face with them instead; he couldn't stand any second he was living in. " _Jon..._ " The tears started falling freely now, much like they would in cartoons. Eduardo curled up, sobbing, trying to form words but it all being blended in with the sobbing, becoming nearly incomprehensible; " _Jon-..._ _ **Please**_ _, come back... Please..._ " The pleading was soul crushing to witness. The pathologists and nurses simply silently watched as Eduardo cried his eyes out and sighed. They had all been in this situation and saw similar situations daily, but this, this was truly THE worst. To see a man cry like this was-... soul crushing... Mark went down on his knees as well, lifted up and hugged Eduardo sideways, not crying, but silently empathizing with his roommate.

Eduardo turned to Mark and embraced the blonde hard, cried against Mark's shoulder and Mark could do nothing else other than being emotional support for his roommate. The rival-trio was at a loss for words. In front of them were their rivals, 2 out of the 3 rivals at least... But this was not a: WE ARE STILL 3! YOU'RE ALREADY DOWN TO 2! HAHA!-moment, they could see how much emotional pain this caused Eduardo and it was a death wish to start laughing. Eduardo had been cruel to Jon for as long as they all could remember, but now that Jon was dead, Eduardo suddenly seemed like he had considered Jon a best friend whom he had been really attached to, like yin and yang or something. It was a weird turn of events, to say the least. Mark waited until Eduardo had quieted down about 11 minutes later before he stated: "We should give him a proper burial..." Eduardo pulled back from Mark and rubbed his red, swollen eyes; " _Yeah_ -" Eduardo agreed and sniffed. "We should..."

* * *

/I realized in the middle of this bullshit that I was going to pair Eduardo and Jon because this is a fanfic with **EDUARDO X JON**... So... I'm going to pull some supernatural shit here and just _fix_ this lil' problem. ^^

* * *

Mark stood up and helped Eduardo to stand as well; "No, you know what? Let's cremate him... Lady?" Eduardo looked at the nurse that had followed them in but she was frozen. Quite literally frozen in place. Not moving. Neither did any of the other pathologists and not even Edd, Matt or Tom. "What the fuck is going on?" Eduardo asked and looked at a clock on the wall. The arm which showed the seconds stood still. " **I bet you're wondering why time is frozen.** " Eduardo and Mark whipped around only to stand face to face with-... a shadow... Not on the floor or on the wall, but standing, in front of them. "Who are you? What are you?" Mark asked and pointed at the shadow. " **Does not matter. Answer me this: Do you want him back?** "

Mark and Eduardo knew immediately what the shadow meant by; _him_ and _back_. "Yes!" Without little to no thought at all on the consequences of what that meant Eduardo agreed to whatever was in front of them had said. " **Then move aside.** " It said and the 2 males moved out of the shadow's way like minus poled magnets being repelled by another minus poled magnet. " **I will be able to revive him to exactly who he was before he died as well as the internal bleeding and broken bones, but I will not be able to heal his mental wounds away. Do I make myself clear?** " Mark and Eduardo were so out of it that they thought they were dreaming it all, but looking at each other they could tell that the other was experiencing the same thing.

Mark and Eduardo looked at the black figure again; "Yeah." Eduardo confirmed. "Crystal clear." Mark clarified. In a flash of darkness, the shadow was gone, time started ticking again and they both looked around. Their eyes moved down to Jon and hope rose in their chests as Jon had gained his beige skin color back. Jon wrinkled his nose, blinked and peered up at his roommates. First looking confused and then looking utterly broken: "... _Why_?..." He asked in a low, hoarse voice. "I... I jumped off a cliff with every intention of _dying!_ " Eduardo had wanted it to have been an accident at first, that Jon fell from the cliff or got pushed, but seeing the video and Jon's reaction now it was clear that it wasn't. " _WHY AM I STILL ALIVE?!_ " Jon was in a panic, this was probably nothing he had hoped for. (Jon... Oh, Jon...) Eduardo though. He wasn't sure if he should be sad, angry or happy. Eduardo lifted Jon's body up enough to enclose his arms around the weakened form: " _Welcome back buddy_..."

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/While I haven't marked this one as mature, it most definitively is. Or- well, it should be. There's no real sexual content in this... _yet_... but I tackle a sensitive topic and describe it in the most explicit way I can imagine right now.

I was thinking this should be it, but I could go for another chapter if readers liked this one. X3 I can't promise the next one is going to be as long, though, but if you want another chapter you'll have to comment and/or review!

Comments are my cookies! I can't write a new chapter if I don't know what my audience wants! SO COMMENT FOR FUCKS SAKE! XD

 **FEED ME!**


	2. 2) Similar but different

**Chapter 2 (Similar to before but different than before)**

The pathologists, the nurse, and their rival trio stood speechless, frozen in place, gaping at the freak show in front of them. How?! Jon was declared dead! How could he possibly be alive?! His body had gained the beige color back and the bruises were all gone. It was a miracle that no one could explain. Mark sighed and smiled, glad that the whole drama was over and done with. Eduardo let go of Jon, took a small distance from the male and looked into his face: "Come on, let's go home, we'll tell you all about this when we get home." Jon shook his head frantically, not understanding anything about the situation. "Why am I not dead? Why am I still alive?!" Jon was still in a panic; why had he woken up? Why was he still alive? Why was Eduardo not beating the shit out of him? Well, he'd get answers to all of that as soon as they all had gotten home again. However, Eduardo had to say something in order for Jon to calm down at least a little: "We wanted you to come back, I'll tell you the whole thing when we get home. So come on-" Eduardo was about to pull off the rest of the paper-like blanket when Jon stopped him. They looked at each other and Eduardo had the realization come to him after only but a short moment. "Oh, right... Where are Jon's-?" Eduardo didn't have to finish his sentence before he spotted Jon's clothing cleaned but a bit torn and folded up on a table on the other side of the room. Eduardo took the clothes, pushed the shirt over Jon's head and pulled on the pants. Thankfully Jon was still wearing his underwear so he wasn't completely exposed.

Eduardo helped Jon to stand up; he needed aid because his legs were unsteady after being unused for some time. Eduardo nodded to Mark, Mark nodded to Eduardo and they all headed for the exit. Everybody else in the room were still frozen in place, silently observing Eduardo walking to the door out. While Eduardo and Mark would love to talk about the miraculous phenomenon they had witnessed, mentioning the close to eerie and unearthly happening would attract more attention that anyone of them would want. All Eduardo and Mark wanted for this all to be forgotten and for them to give all their attention to Jon. Eduardo stopped and turned around to face all the speechless individuals that were all gaping like fish. "Alright, I would love to explain why this happened, but it will take too long and nobody will believe me anyway. All we want right now is for this to seem like it never happened and for us to be able to go home without being stopped by a tidal wave of journalists and reporters. Are we clear?" Not waiting for any form of response, Eduardo walked through the doorframe followed by Mark who shut the door after them. Like victors, Eduardo and Mark walked out of the hospital with their heads held high. They felt like they were unstoppable. Eduardo took off his green shirt and draped it over Jon's shoulders because he wanted Jon to feel warm and welcome. Make him feel at home even if they weren't home yet. They had to make a few stops at a few other places though before getting home. They couldn't leave the report open on Jon's disappearance since Jon had been found.

They went to the police station first where Eduardo told the police to not mention anything about Jon's death to the press/media no matter what because they wanted to avoid attention. After that, they went over to where the news was being broadcasted and Mark told the directors of the news channel and newspapers that they found Jon so they could stop reporting on Jon's disappearance as he had been found. Now that that was taken care of they headed home finally, the sun had started setting. Eduardo walked on Jon's right side and Mark on Jon's left side to support their friend in case Jon was to fall since that was a very present threat as Jon had weakened both physically and mentally. Mark and Eduardo had to be very careful from then on what they said and did in Jon's presence because with Jon's current mental state he would probably not be able to handle anything too hard. Jon was a fragile vase at this point, should he be pushed too hard he might fall and break, Mark and Eduardo couldn't afford that to happen. Eduardo was more than a little determined to keep Jon out of harm's way

Eduardo and Mark got Jon home and the time has reached 7.25 pm. Eduardo was the first one to come inside, Jon following Eduardo and Mark being the last one inside who shut the door. "Welcome home, Jon." Eduardo said, still being in a state of a ridiculous amount of joy, at least a ridiculous amount for being Eduardo. Jon smiled and nodded, the smile was narrow but genuine. "I'm starving, what's for dinner?" Jon asked and put his hand on his whining stomach to try to silence it. (That shadow probably didn't fill him up completely...) Eduardo though but didn't have any major problems with that. Of course, Jon would be hungry since he'd been without food for so long. Mark replied with a rather lighthearted: "Whatever you want it to be. What are you hungry for?" Jon smiled a rather narrow smile again, but it wasn't a hollow and empty smile that he had worn in the video Mark and Eduardo saw at the police station. That smile still haunted them both.

"Waffles!" Jon exclaimed and threw his arms in the air, his smile had grown to the fool sized smile both Mark and Eduardo were both accustomed to. Eduardo and Mark briefly gave one another a look of relief and chuckled. It was good to see that Jon's childish behavior was still present, also that it had come back after Jon being completely wrecked at the morgue. Mark and Eduardo went into the kitchen and made preparations for their victory feast, even if said victory feast consisted of waffles. Jon asked if he could be of any help but Mark just told Jon to sit down by the table in the meantime while Mark himself and Eduardo prepped the meal. Mark put out plates, glasses, a jug of water and cutlery for 3 on the table. Eduardo blended the ingredients together in a bowl and baked 25 waffles in their waffle iron. Mark picked out strawberry jam from the fridge and made whipped cream for the waffles much to Jon's delight as he loved waffles with whipped cream and jam. Jon was already feeling happier after being devastated at the morgue. It was magical how rapidly he could be pleased.

Jon took 7 waffles from the pile of waffles on the plate in the middle of the table, Eduardo picked 8 and Mark 5. While they were eating, Jon decided to speak out about something he was deep in thought about: "I really must be dead though, this must be heaven because neither of the real Eduardo and Mark would ever be this nice to me." With that statement, both Mark and Eduardo felt daggers in their hearts, they had really been treating Jon bad if Jon really associated them both with pain and evil. "Yeah, about that-..." Mark began. "You are not dead, Jon, and it's too complicated to explain why." Eduardo filled in and the joyful atmosphere sank a bit. "Eduardo is right Jon, you are very much alive." Mark finished and sighed, both Mark and Eduardo stared blankly down at their stacks of waffles. "Jon, I- WE are sorry for these years. For all these years you had-... We found your diary with a bloody knife in your favorite pillow and watched your recorded last message on your phone and we're sorry." Eduardo said and looked up at Jon with an apologetic look. "For everything that we have done, for all of what you had to experience- I can't even express verbally how sorry we are." Mark clarified and looked at Jon as well.

Jon looked uncomfortable and started fidgeting: "No, it's- it's alright!" Jon said and faked a laugh. While it wasn't hollow, it was still forced. Eduardo could feel anger brewing in his chest and the anger was stinging at his heart. "It wasn't all that bad-" Jon began but Eduardo's anger started boiling at that point; why? Well, because Jon took his own pain so lightly just because he adored his seniors. Eduardo cut the other male off before he was able to say anything more: "You have been cutting yourself for 6 years." Eduardo deadpanned with a voice laced with venom and every word he spoke was like the swing of a sledgehammer; he wasn't going to take any of Jon's bullshit. Jon became visibly scared, raised his arms out in front of him and held his hands up so that his palms were placed like target boards in front of Eduardo's face. "Don't be angry, Eduardo! I didn't know what I was doing!" Eduardo feeling the rage boiling over he slammed his hands on the table and stood up so quickly his chair fell backward and landed on the floor; Eduardo grabbed Jon's right arm and pushed up the fabric of Jon's torn shirt so that the striped scarred skin was visible: "Like hell you did! Look at this! 6 years, Jon! I caused this! Seems to me like you had a pretty clear idea of what you were doing!" Eduardo felt something in his chest that hurt so bad he had to retract one of his hands to grasp at the fabric of his shirt over his heart. Mark stood up as well and put a hand on Eduardo's shoulder: "Eduardo..." He whispered and Eduardo looked at the blonde, then back at Jon and Jon looked like a cornered animal, terrified. "... Sorry..." Eduardo let go of Jon and averted is eyes. "I need to catch some fresh air, I'll be right back." He said and went outside leaving his portion of waffles behind but behind him as Eduardo stood in the doorway he could hear the hushed voice of Jon asking Mark: "Did I do something wrong?"

Eduardo sighed and sat outside on the porch; breathed slowly, closed his eyes, and buried his face in his hands. He had frightened Jon, probably to the level where Jon had wanted to run away again. Eduardo knew that he really needed to get control over his temper so that Jon didn't suddenly decide to commit suicide again. It would take time and effort, but he would overcome his demons... eventually... The door behind him opened, someone came out and the door closed; Great, Mark had come out to shower Eduardo with his words of wisdom! "Well then, let's hear it..." Eduardo said and sighed. "I... I'm sorry if I upset you, Eduardo..." It was Jon's voice, quiet and completely drowned in guilt. Eduardo turned around with wide eyes and analyzed Jon's posture; He was bent forward slightly in an apologetic manner but his eyes were glued only at his feet, his hands behind his back and his shoulder tensed up. Before Eduardo lets his time go to waste staring at Jon without saying anything he speaks up: "Don't apologize, I should be the one saying sorry. My temper is the worst; I shouldn't have taken out my anger on you. It's just that-... It's just that when you worded the torture I put you through as nothing to remotely care about I flared up. I'd go as far as to say that I'm dangerous because of my temper. I should be locked up in prison-" "Stop that!" Jon said straightened his arms at his sides, clenched his fist and stomped the boards on the porch but immediately regretted it. Eduardo was surprised Jon even raised his voice in front of the Alfa of their small group/pack of 3, Jon had never done that before. Eduardo was impressed, to say the least. "I- I mean, I probably deserved all of what you gave me." He muttered almost inaudibly but Eduardo heard it, shook his head and responded with a _final argument_ kind of tone in his voice: "Maybe you deserved something, which I doubt in all honesty, but you didn't deserve me beating you senseless." Eduardo said and turned to look in front of himself again, an awkward silence following the last words.

"... Eduardo...?" Jon began and took a hesitant step towards Eduardo. "Spare me the pity, I don't deserve it. If it should be someone here out of us two to be undeserved of anything, it should be me. I should be undeserved of pity- and deserved of a lot of pain for that matter." Eduardo growled at himself and scratched the back of his head, not because of an itch or anything like that, but more of a nervous tic to help him keep himself together. "I mean I-... I am the reason you jumped off a cliff... There is nothing I can say that will justify that... Apologizing won't cut it. Simply never doing it again wouldn't have worked if that thing hadn't brought you ba-" Eduardo cut himself off when he noticed himself talking about that-... the shadow-like thing that healed and revived Jon. He and Mark had promised themselves they would forget about everything that had happened that day. The; finding Jon's dead body in the water, witnessing Jon's final message on Jon's cell phone at the police station, touching Jon's dead and decaying body at the morgue, and even the human-shaped materialized shadow that brought Jon back to life- ALL of that was something Eduardo didn't want to think about anymore if ever. "... Eduardo?" Jon tried once more, Eduardo finally gave in and turned to face Jon: "Yes, Jon?" Jon fidgeted a little before he whispered in the weakest voice you could imagine but still loud enough to be audible:

"Thank you..."

Eduardo raised his eyebrows and turned his sitting position so that he had a better view of Jon: "Huh?" Jon became as red as a tomato and put his hands on his cheeks so that he could stop his head from exploding or something. "Mark said-... Mark said that you looked for me for a whole week... that you did the most of the whole search... that you skipped sleeping and eating too..." Eduardo remembered just now how tired he was, it was just that since first finding out Jon was dead to the current point in time he had completely forgotten about his hunger and fatigue. He hadn't slept at all and he hadn't even finished his waffles so he was still hungry, thirsty and tired. "Yup, I did skip the necessities just so that I could find you faster." Jon sighed and looked really troubled. "Alright, spit it out." Eduardo said and pursed his lips. Jon really enjoyed driving him mad Eduardo he thought. "I'm sorry you had to skip eating and sleeping because of me..." Eduardo became not just a little irritated that Jon kept apologizing for every little thing. He felt the same burning sting at his chest again and so he calmed down because becoming angry seemed to be the cause of the pain in Eduardo's chest. Eduardo rose up and approached Jon. "Jon, I- ugh, god fucking dammit, Jon." Eduardo said and enclosed his arms around his confused friend. "Stop apologizing already, if you feel the need to apologize then apologize for making it so goddamn hard to find you. It felt like Mark and I was running in circles most of the time. Other than that, finding out your backstory through your diary; your thoughts, feelings, insecurities, ALL of it! I and Mark needed all of it to realize how much you meant to us. I speak on his behalf when I say that we are sorry we didn't realize sooner." Jon listened until Eduardo had finished his statement, then Jon encircled his arms around Eduardo as well and sniffed. "Ok, sorry for that, and thank you for finding me."

The sniff caught Eduardo off guard, he withdrew himself from Jon so that he could look at Jon and to Eduardo's surprise, Jon was crying (tears of joy FYI, but still tears in Eduardo's eyes). At the sight of Jon's tears, a sharp invisible sword stroke through Eduardo's chest. That was exactly how it felt and it was horrible! Eduardo gasped and fell to his knees. "Eduardo?!" Jon wiped his tears away and went down to the ground as well. "Eduardo! Are you alright?!" Eduardo waited until he had caught his breath before he met Jon's worried eyes and replied with: "Yeah, I'm- I'm good." and he tried to make it as convincing as possible but it was nearly impossible. "Come on, I'll help you inside! We'll eat the rest of the waffles and I'll help you get to bed!" Eduardo didn't want to be helped to do things he could do on his own, but he had a feeling Jon wouldn't let him go off on his own. Jon held Eduardo's left hand and led Eduardo inside, back into the kitchen where Mark was doing the dishes: "Had a nice meal of fresh air, eh, Eduardo?" Eduardo didn't mind the comment whether it was a comment of; real concern, impudence or just teasing, it didn't matter. Eduardo didn't answer it and just sat down and continued wolfing down the waffles. Jon had-... he showed remarkable sign of mental recovery so far, but Eduardo knew that that was mostly on the surface. Throughout the years Eduardo had done far deeper wounds on Jon's sanity that one single day would be able to mend. The diary was the evidence of that. Oh yeah! The diary! Eduardo still had it on him. He picked it out of his pants right pocket and handed it to Jon who sat across the table and said: "Since we don't need this anymore, you can have it back." Jon looked at it, then at Eduardo, smiled and grabbed the book: "Thank you, Eduardo." Jon said and carried it off to his room. "WHAT A MESS!" Jon's voice cut through the air like a woman's scream. Eduardo and Mark chuckled because they knew they had to clean it all up. "That is our fault, we'll fix it." Mark said and washed his hands when he was done. "You can move a few things from the floor, take the spare mattress and sleep there and we'll fix your room tomorrow." He said and wiped his hands off on a nearby towel.

Jon nodded, came back to the kitchen, finished his meal, he looked over at Eduardo's place on the other side of the table but Eduardo was already done and he was currently washing his plate, glass, fork and knife. "Can I wash my things after you, Eduardo?" Eduardo turned to look at Jon who put his glass, fork, and knife on the plate and stood up. "Give me those, I can do it." He said and smiled, Jon replied to Eduardo with a smile of his own, nearly as bright as it used to be and gave Eduardo his dirty dishes. "Come on, I'll help you with the mattress." Mark said, he and Jon left the kitchen and Eduardo was left with the few dirty dishes that were left. He cleaned them up, put them away to dry and washed his hands lastly. Eduardo headed over to Jon's room and the mattress was already being placed on the floor. "Is it good enough here?" Mark asked and Jon hummed thoughtfully. "Yes, thank you, Mark." Jon said and fell onto the mattress. "It was my pleasure, Jon. Wait here, I'll go get a quilt and a pillow for you." Mark said and left. The mattress-... actually looked pretty big to be for one person only... (120 cm / 3 ft and 11.2441 inches wide) It could probably fit 2 persons... Eduardo's train of thought was put to a screeching halt as Mark came back into the room. Laughing, he said: "I just remembered I didn't have to go get something new, you still have your duvet and pillows here." He said and uncovered Jon's bed to pick up the fluffy blanket and two pillows. "Here, go brush your teeth, both of you, I'm going to go to bed as well." Mark said and left for the bathroom. Eduardo sighed and looked from where Mark had disappeared off to back down on Jon on the bed. "Come on, we need to go have some Z's too." Jon rolled over and stood up: "Yeah, we should."

When Eduardo and Jon got to the bathroom, Mark was on his way out already. "Good night, Eduardo, goodnight Jon." Mark said and yawned. "Good night, Mark" Eduardo and Jon said simultaneously. Eduardo and Jon both brushed their teeth and were about to separate in the corridor when Eduardo stopped Jon from going into his room by grabbing his arm and asked in a voice no lower than a whisper: "Can I sleep next to you?" Jon smiled a heartwarming smile, his signature, genuine smile and said: "Of course, Eduardo. I'd love to sleep with you." That smile which he always did before all this, it had only taken a 3rd of a day for him to smile like that. It looked genuine, but whether it was genuine or not was only left to be proven wrong. Eduardo got his thin quilt from his room and his pillow before he went back to Jon's room and got into bed next to Jon who had already made himself right at home in his temporary bed. "Goodnight, Eduardo." Jon whispered and Eduardo replied: "Goodnight, Jon" Jon emitted a quiet but happy squeak and moved around beneath the fabric in a fit of ecstasy.

Next morning, Jon woke up alone in bed and he heard the commotion from the kitchen. Jon yawned and stood up. He changed his pajama to his everyday clothing and headed out into the kitchen where; Mark sat on a chair that was at the top left corner of the table where he usually sat, drinking coffee, eating a sandwich with cheese and reading the daily newspaper. Eduardo was-... he was making pancakes... "Good morning, guys." Mark's and Eduardo's swiftly turned to face Jon and a happy reply followed: "Good morning, Jon." Jon didn't understand at all, not in the slightest why his abusive friend Eduardo had suddenly reformed into the Eduardo of Jon's dreams; kind and caring. When Jon had woken up in the morgue, the first thing Eduardo did was hugging Jon, now, Eduardo was possibly making breakfast for Jon. It was crazy, but Jon couldn't get his hopes up, Eduardo could probably revert back into the sick sadist he was before... Or-... maybe he wasn't dead, maybe this was all a very long and realistic dream? There was no way he could be awake and/or alive. Jon rejected the fact that Eduardo was nice so hard because it all seemed so impossible, unreal even. Eduardo had been abusive most of their time knowing each other, there was just no way that Eduardo would suddenly switch over to being a good friend pretty much instantly like this. Whether Jon was dead or just dreaming it didn't really bother him much. He'd love to just stay in this world for as long as he could possibly manage, revel in the joy that it brought him. He had no wishes for Mark to change, he was his own person and Jon could respect that, and the only complaint Jon had about Eduardo was to end the humiliation and the abuse. Now that Eduardo wasn't humiliating or hitting Jon since he woke up in the morgue, the only logical explanations were that Jon had died and woken up in his own utopia in the afterlife or was dreaming a very, very long dream. A dream he did not want to wake up from no matter what consequences it would bring to Eduardo or Mark outside of that dream.

Eduardo put out 2 plates on the table, 2 glasses, 2 forks, 2 knives, strawberry jam, whipped cream and lastly a plate with at least 15 cm/about half a foot tall tower of freshly baked pancakes. "Sit down Jon and help yourself." Jon was speechless, he was so happy and he had no idea what he was going to do with all of the overflowing happiness. Squeal? Dance? Hug Eduardo the hardest he could manage? His head was full of possible reactions he could express at the moment which only leads him to stand frozen in place drooling at the sight of the pancakes. "Heh, come and sit already, the pancakes will get cold, and wipe the drool from your face." Jon shook his head trying to get his train of thought back on track, wiped the drool from the side of his mouth and hurried to sit down by the table. "Thank you, Eduardo, I love pancakes!" He said and placed one of the pancakes on his plate which he then put a layer of jam and cream on, rolled it up and ate it like a burrito. "Oh, I know." Eduardo said and his smile grew 1 inch wider. Seeing Jon as happy as he used to look before all of this drama was really rewarding for some reason. Eduardo had 9 pancakes and Jon had 10. Eduardo could only think of that being nothing but good since breakfast is THE MOST important meal of the entire day. If Jon was to regain his strength he needed a lot of nutrients. The shadow from the day before had said that he would restore Jon to what his body was from before his death and it was probably to before he jumped off the cliff. If Jon's stomach was still starved he would throw up anything he ate because suddenly filling an empty stomach to the brim will be too much for the body to handle and as such would force the body to spew the ingested contents. But, didn't Jon have bulimia since several weeks back?... If that truly was it, then that shadow-thing probably made Jon a favor restoring Jon to a healthier state. The cuts on his arms were still present, but they didn't hurt as much anymore to gaze upon.

Jon was alive and he was happy, that was all that mattered right now.

A few days passed and Jon had made remarkable progress in recovery. His body was fine but he was still weak and he still had some moments where he illustrated through body language that he still had a few problems doing everyday tasks. For example, if Eduardo came into bodily contact with Jon without Jon knowing he would jerk away reflexively. A reflexive memory, if he ever stood in Eduardo's way he would usually get hit, but now-... Jon was being taken care of in a way that almost was a bit scary. Embraced when waking up, Eduardo cooked waffles for dinner, Eduardo slept next to him that night, Eduardo cooked pancakes for breakfast- it was as if he was dreaming... A _dead dream_... So that was it?... When you die, you dream for eternity... No... Jon wasn't sure he was dead yet, but he was in a firm belief of him being dead at least. Everything around him was his own imagination and his real body was decaying still.

But-... Eduardo had been acting weird... Whenever he seemed to flare up or even get the tiniest bit irritated he would suddenly clutch his chest and hunch over and/or collapse to the floor. Mark had made comments on that behavior saying that Eduardo should really go get that checked, but Eduardo refused wholeheartedly, saying that he was fine and it was probably a side effect of being exposed to a lot of stress and/or skipping sleep as well as skipping meals. Eduardo told Jon every time he mentioned the skipping sleep and meals that it wasn't Jon's fault, but the truth was that Jon cared little for that anymore, he just wanted his best friend to be ok. Jon had gotten used to the new/old reality he found himself in, but still didn't believe it truly existed. Eduardo and Mark had many times tried to convince Jon that he wasn't dead or asleep and even more attempts had been made trying to come up with ways they could use to prove that everything around him was real; all of which had failed. Jon was still convinced he was asleep and/or dead and everything around him was nonexistent utopia. He had at one point thought that he had woken up in an alternate reality but rejected that theory as well as it didn't line up with him waking up in a morgue. The morgue was so far the single solid evidence he had of everything around him being a fiction made up by his mind after death. He knew that the brain didn't work anymore when the body is dead, but the utopia after death was maybe the last wish granted by the brain before it died? This also meant that everything around him was a lie... Living a reality that was never meant to happen anywhere outside of Jon's imagination... Or-... maybe this was his own personal heaven? The afterlife?

Mark, Eduardo, and Jon were walking down an empty street in town; Mark and Jon being silent, listening to Eduardo as he babbled on about how to accurately speed run Mario out of all games he could have talked about. Jon listened intently at every word Eduardo had to say, and Mark almost fell asleep he was so uninterested. While Mark did like playing games occasionally; he found books to be far more interesting. Mark looked at his watch, she was a little over 9 pm and it was getting darker already. They had all decided to go bowling and then eat at some restaurant which they didn't really bother with when done bowling so they all bought something from a hot-dog stand. Eduardo bought a regular hot-dog, Mark had a salad and Jon had a cucumber\ham\cheese toast. They had finished their meals, thrown away the trash in a garbage bin outside and was now walking down the street home. "I have been meaning to say this for a long time now; you have changed Eduardo." Mark said and cocked his head to the side. Eduardo stopped talking. He still walked but he was silent, speechless. "Yeah, I have, haven't I?" Playing dumb was the only choice; Eduardo knew he had changed, he needed to, and he HAD to. Eduardo had changed intentionally, he did everything to distance himself from who he had been and he had succeeded in doing so. If he still was the abusive and demeaning asshole that he used to be before then Jon would attempt suicide again. Eduardo was treading on really goddamn thin ice though, he had done everything to find Jon when Jon had disappeared, he had agreed to the shadow's help when the shadow offered to revive Jon- and, let's be real here, Eduardo might have sold his soul at that moment. He cooked food for Jon in the morning, at lunch and in the evening- he wanted to make the burden on Jon's shoulders as small as possible, if there was even the slightest of weight that Jon would have to carry on his own then Eduardo would be stricken with panic. Eduardo knew that Jon was weaker after all that had happened; Jon had been strong enough to stand for this long but that strength had only been the result of Jon lying to himself. Telling himself that one day Eduardo would look at Jon differently and treat Jon more kindly. Even now, he was still delusional, thinking that he was dead or asleep. Jon was weak mentally and weak physically. Training and being ripped wasn't Jon's thing, so someone had to be strong for him and that was where Eduardo came into the picture. Protecting Jon from potential threats to Jon's body and Jon's psyche was Eduardo's top priority since everything around Jon could harm him. Jon was a fragile vase on the edge of a table, he only needed a gentle gust of wind hitting his side and he would be plummeting to the floor faster than Eduardo would be able to catch him. This was why Eduardo was walking on thin ice, he had to make sure to eradicate any potential threat from ever appearing in front of Jon.

Mark wondered what Eduardo was in so deep thought about but for now, he was just glad that Eduardo stopped talking. The silence wasn't awkward though, it was pleasant, comfortable even. Suddenly 5 hooded strangers crossed the streets and came walking towards them. "Eduardo?..." Jon whispered and slowed down so that he was walking behind Eduardo as a mean of protecting himself from whomever the ones where that were walking towards the trio. "It'll be ok, Jon. Stay close to me and do exactly as I say. Hopefully, we won't have to confront them." Eduardo whispered back to Jon over his shoulder. However, when the trio was about to pass the 5 strangers they were all surrounded by the strangers pretty quickly, like predators surrounding a prey on the savanna. "Follow us into the alley" Only 8 steps ahead was an alley; dark, lonely, empty and cold. "Eduardo?" It was very noticeable in Jon's voice now that he was more than a little scared. Eduardo had to play his cards right, otherwise, the situation could turn out ugly. "I promise it's going to be ok, Jon. Just follow my lead." Eduardo whispered over his shoulder again and lead the group of 3 into the alley still surrounded by the 5 strangers. Someone pushed Jon hard forward but Eduardo managed to catch his friend in midair around Jon's waist. "Ah, we've got ourselves a group of queers." One of the strangers said. "Faggots, they're all the same." Another said and it was getting tiring already being called gay for preventing a friend from colliding face-first with asphalt. "Alright, what do you want?" Trying to do everything in his power not to become angry and create a murder scene he helped Jon stand straight again. Focusing on Jon was a great way to relieve anger. Jon was very visibly scared now, Eduardo had to do something and fast. They HAD to get out of there. "What we want? We want anything of worth." Eduardo turned around to the one at the front of the group who spoke with him but was unable to say anything else when he stood at gunpoint with a gun; Colt 1911, tactical model it seemed. If he had been shot at that moment he would drop dead, no doubt.

Jon made a silent scream, a lot of power was behind it but most of the sound that escaped Jon's lips consisted of air. "Anything you are wearing or have yourselves that are of worth; wallet, cell phone, watch, clothes, everything, give it to us and we won't have to shoot you." Eduardo couldn't give away everything they had, 1) it was wrong, 2) why should he give someone else his money? 3) Just because they had a gun didn't mean it was loaded. He felt and heard Jon being pushed into his back; Eduardo looked behind him only to see a teary-eyed and trembling Jon. They actually made Jon cry? (They will pay!) Eduardo though and looked back at the one in the front. "Eduardo, what do we do?" Mark asked and it was pretty obvious that he was the only calm one as the tone he spoke with was a nonchalant and slightly irritated one. "Gimme a minute, Mark. No one does anything until I say so." The strangers started laughing and the _leader_ spoke again: "Oh, so you're a threesome then?" "What?" Eduardo was getting considerably more irritated and Jon became a lot more agitated, enough to the point where he started whining. With the gun still between Eduardo's eyebrows, he was unable to do anything as he heard and felt Jon being yanked away from where he was standing and held in a way so that he could not move. "Let go of m- AH! NO STOP IT!" He screamed and- by the sound of it, he had another stranger checking through his pockets. The-... the thought of someone touching Jon against his will or touching him at all was... it was infuriating. "Get your hands off of Jon! Touch Jon and I swear you will not like what'll happen next!" Trying to keep his emotions in check Eduardo hoped threatening them would be enough.

"N-AH! NO! NOT THERE!" Eduardo didn't see what happened to Jon behind him, but the close to suggestive words seemed to indicate that he was being touched in places that were deemed inappropriate. "Did I not make myself clear?!" Eduardo asked and eyed the stranger in front of him. "Yeah, you did, but I didn't listen." "NO! EDUARDO! HELP!" The anger that Eduardo had tried to suppress was starting to boil over. "Get your filthy hands off of Jon! This is my LAST warning!" As Eduardo got angrier, his head started hurting, more and more by the second. "Or you'll what?" The leader asked and spat on the ground in front of Eduardo's feet. Suddenly 2 red lines started running down Eduardo's upper lip and dripped down onto the ground. Eduardo held his left hand to the left side of his head trying to tame the ache but it was futile. "Pick on someone your own size! Pick on m-" Eduardo coughed and the nosebleed intensified, not so that he would bleed to death but it was still noticeable he was bleeding considerably much more. "Oh, yeah, you're SO scary!" The _leader_ snorted briefly before chopping Eduardo's attempts to avoid the confrontation into smithereens with: "You know my gun is loaded right? Besides, I don't think society would miss 3 faggots or notice if you 3 would _suddenly_ disappear-"

Then at that moment, Eduardo felt that same surge of energy flow through him like it had when he screamed in Mark's face at the top of the cliff where they had found Jon dead in the cluster of pointy rocks. Eduardo crouched just a bit, lunged forward, his fist coming as fast as a jet in a curved motion upwards, an uppercut. The punch hit the leader beneath his jaw. The collision between Eduardo's clenched fist and the leader's chin was so fierce it sent the other individual 5 meters/~16 feet into the air. The male landed some distance away and Eduardo finished his move with an order: " **YOU SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!** " Trying to catch his breath Eduardo calmed down as he had now ventilated some of the excess energy. He turned a burning glare to the other strangers to his left and then at the ones on his right. Before he had time to say anything to them they immediately all jumped on him trying to get him down on the ground. This, of course, seemed impossible because Eduardo was as sturdy as a fucking mountain at this point. He spun until he had gotten all of them off, grabbed one from the ground by the right arm, spread it out on the ground with the palm facing the concrete, put a foot on the elbow, pulled the wrist upwards until the elbow-joint broke inside out with a crack without even flinching. A stomach wrenching scream echoed between the walls in the alley and the other strangers were frozen in place, staring in abject horror as their _friend_ was brutally tortured. Well, brutally tortured to have been done with no torture tools and only with the hands, that was. With death in his eyes, Eduardo took a sweeping look at the other hooded human beings. Now, looking at them closer, they wore scarfs around their faces and concealed their eyes with sunglasses to hide their identities. Well, now it didn't matter. " **... Leave... or I swear that you all will be next...** " He murmured and wiped most of the blood beneath his nose off with the back of his hand which only left his entire mouth being all bloody. The red bottom half of Eduardo's face being scarlet red like that made him look like a predator, a wild animal even. Eduardo got off of the now whining one-armed dude and the strangers all hurried away like dogs with their tail between their hind legs.

As soon as they were gone Eduardo turned around only to stand in front of 2 faces filled with fear. Mark had taken a step back and held his arms in front of his chest in a defensive stance. Jon, on the other hand, hadn't moved an inch but he had cupped his hands over his mouth and his eyes might just have been golf balls because they were that big. Eduardo had to fix this-... somehow... He solved the issue of the muggers by creating another problem, but he would be able to fix it, he had to. But before he was able to act on solving the current problem he felt a sharp sting in his chest, especially around the heart area. Eduardo collapsed and a howl of pain escaped his lips as he clutched the fabric of his shirt over where the heart is located. Jon and Mark snapped out of their fear and ran over to Eduardo, worried their friend might have hurt himself in any way. "Eduardo! Are you alright?!" Mark asked and without asking he grabbed one of Eduardo's arms, attempting to lift his comrade up. Jon grabbed the other arm and lifted Eduardo up as well. Mark hooked Eduardo's arms around his (Mark's own) shoulders to keep Eduardo upright; "We need to get you home!" Mark said with a mixture of command and concern in his voice. Jon let go of Eduardo's other arm, stood in front of the brunette and cupped his hands around the brunette's cheeks; "Eduardo, how are you feeling? Hello?!" Eduardo looked at Jon's face that became a lot blurrier for some reason. Jon's voice started toning out and Eduardo felt his head getting heavier. "Damn it all, we're losing him!" And that was when everything went dark.

Jon lightly slapped Eduardo's cheeks trying to make Eduardo return to focus; "Eduardo? Eduardo!" He cried but Mark shook his head; "He's out already." he said as evident by Eduardo becoming heavier on Mark's shoulders. As Eduardo was passed out he wouldn't be able to support himself when standing so his legs would not be working thus him becoming a heavier weight. "Come on, let's bring him home, he needs rest more than anything right now." Jon grabbed the other arm to put it on and across his shoulders just like Mark had done in order to help support Eduardo's body. "Shouldn't we bring him to the hospital? I mean, he's bleeding?" Jon asked and they both started walking in the direction of their house. "No, I think he's just exhausted. The blood and sudden apparent pains in his chest have been _worrying_ , to say the least, but he has strongly refused to be taken to the hospital and I think we should ask him first before we take him to a professional. I would love to just do it right away but I don't think he will like it if we bring him to a bright sterilized room." Mark was right and Jon knew that. There was no knowing what Eduardo would do, how upset he would become, and how much pain he could potentially be in as a result. "Ok, Mark, I trust you on this one..." Jon then had an epiphany, if they couldn't bring Eduardo to a professional, why could they not bring a professional to Eduardo?! "Maybe we can call the hospital and ask for someone to check on Eduardo?!" Mark contemplated the thought, while they had a professional checking on the health of their friend they would still not have brought Eduardo to the hospital. "That's a brilliant idea!" Jon smiled one of his heartwarming smiles and they sped up to get home quicker. "Let's just make sure he's still breathing when we get home before we do anything, alright?" Eduardo would probably be pretty pissed if they didn't ask for his consent first...

Jon let go of Eduardo as they stood in front of their entrance door, unlocked the wooden portal and swung it open so that Mark could help Eduardo inside. Jon closed the door as they all were inside. The time had started from 9 pm when Mark last checked to 11 pm. "I'm about to pass out, I'm so tired- but we have to get Eduardo to bed first... but we can't leave him either... If he stops breathing in the middle of the night then he'll be dead by sunrise." Mark said in a concerned tone, Mark wanted to make sure Eduardo was ok but he also wanted to sleep. "Hm, it's ok, Mark, I'll watch over Eduardo." Jon said and reached out to grab Eduardo but Mark held the unconscious body away from Jon's arms; "While that would be good, I don't think you'll be able to carry him, let me, just tell me where I should put him." Jon nodded and ran ahead to his room. "Put him on my bed, if I need to keep a constant lookout it would be best if he was right next to me." Mark hummed and followed Jon to Jon's room; "That's actually not such a bad idea. I myself have to be alone to be able to sleep" Jon pushed away the duvet and Mark put Eduardo down on Jon's bed. "He's awfully still... Is he still breathing?" Jon asked and Mark took Eduardo's pulse, then he held his hand hovering over Eduardo's mouth to check the breathing. "Yes, he's alive, his heart is still beating and his breathing is regular." Jon drew a sigh of relief and smiled; "I'll go brush my teeth, you should too, I'll try to brush Eduardo's teeth too or his teeth will get holes." Mark chuckled and crossed his arms; "Considerate of the health of someone who shouldn't even be real, hm?" Yeah, Mark was referring to how Jon thought that everything around him was a fabricated world, his own utopia after death. Jon was quiet for an uncomfortably long time and it worried Mark a bit. "Jon?" Mark asked and Jon sighed; "Honestly, this all became painfully and scarily real as we almost got robbed in that alley..." Jon admitted and scratched the side of his neck. "If I was dead and in my own personal utopia, then I wouldn't have to experience pain or fear... In my utopia you 2 are my best friends, we laugh and have fun, but I also don't have to feel any sort of pain or fear ever..."

For Jon to actually consider the waking world as the realm of the living and not the dead was mind-blowing for Mark. He smiled a sad and bitter smile as he looked down on Eduardo's sleeping face; "If only he was here to hear you say that..." Jon looked at Mark confusedly and asked: "Why? What do you mean?" Mark looked at Jon and his bitter smile changed into a sincere one as he replied: "Because he would have been so happy to hear you say that." Jon had a faint blush blooming on his cheeks and he looked down on Eduardo, giggled and stood up; "He'll probably hear me say it again soon." Jon said and headed off to brush his teeth in the bathroom. "Good to hear." Mark said, stood up as well and followed Jon to the bathroom. When they both had made themselves ready for bed they said goodnight and went to their respective rooms. During the last days, they had all taken their time to clean up in Jon's room and taken out the large mattress so Jon's room was all neat again. Jon changed his clothes but remembered he would make Eduardo unbearably hot if Eduardo slept next to Jon in his jeans and long sleeved shirt so he got Eduardo's pajama pants from Eduardo's room and re-dressed Eduardo for the night. Jon folded the clothes neatly, put them beside his bed, dressed up in his own pajama, and lay down beside Eduardo as he lastly pulled the duvet over them both. "Goodnight, Eduardo." Jon said, smiled and closed his eyes. While it had been scary seeing Eduardo becoming that upset that he punched someone that hard, it felt kinda good as he had become so upset when Jon screamed for Eduardo's help. It wasn't Jon's call for help that seemed to have angered Eduardo, but the reason to why Jon called for Eduardo was. He wanted to help Jon, if he didn't then he wouldn't have flared up as much as he had and-... punched the one with the gun that high in the air... or broken the right elbow joint inside out like that from one of the other bad guys... That scream had made Jon's blood run cold; Eduardo had never been that violent, not even when he was Numero Un-... Actually, the last time he actually exhibited that kind of strength but just nearly that kind of level of violence was when Eduardo became Numero Uno...

Maybe those powers he had needed to be fed new energy? Maybe the powers that he had were collapsing in on themselves? DNA doesn't change because of no reason at all, so maybe, if they were being ignored and/or given no form of nutrition they would mob the possessor? Maybe this could be lethal? Jon was worried, VERY worried, whatever the pains were a harbinger of it wasn't good. Jon was going down a spiral of fear, panic, and depression, he could potentially lose Eduardo. The thought scared him. Before he was able to further contemplate on that he stopped to consider; "why? Why was he scared to lose this Eduardo?" because-... because whether or not this Eduardo was the actual Eduardo or a fictional individual didn't matter because he liked this Eduardo more than the abusive roommate he used to know. Jon turned to look at Eduardo; the bed was a lot smaller than the temporary mattress that Jon slept on once next Eduardo and Jon felt like a sardine stuck in a jar, there was little space to move around-... Jon raised a hand and stroked Eduardo's cheek, he caught himself acting weirdly and retracted his hand, but he still wanted to touch Eduardo. The thought of the last time they would have been in bodily contact would be when Jon had stroked Eduardo's cheek while Eduardo was unconscious scared Jon to an unreasonable manner. Jon stretched his arm over Eduardo's chest to grab Eduardo's shoulder and turned Eduardo 90 degrees over to himself. When Jon and Eduardo were facing each other Jon embraced his friend hard. If this was going to be the last moment he would have Eduardo in his arms _still warm_ , then he would make sure the moment he would remember forever would last for as long as possible.

Jon woke up a little after 8.16 am next morning and the house was silent. Mark wasn't up yet. Jon opened his eyes and looked directly at Eduardo, just where he had left him. Eduardo was still sleeping, still alive, he was breathing slowly and he was sweating a little as it was really hot beneath the duvet. It didn't really surprise Jon though, they both were warm-blooded human beings, and it was only natural that it would be extra hot when they were together under a lid of heat. Eduardo was Jon's best friend and Jon would hate to lose something he valued so much. Mark was a good friend too, but Eduardo had always been Jon's one and only _numero uno_ (pun intended). Jon untangled his arms from Eduardo and got out of bed. "I will fix your breakfast this time-... as soon as you have woken up, I can't leave you now..." Jon admitted, crossed his arms and hummed in a thoughtful manner. Jon sighed and dressed in the clothes he wore the day before. "I'll be here..." He said and sat down on the floor in front of the sleeping Eduardo. Seconds ticked by, seconds became minutes and Jon started dozing off because his brain wasn't in activity. Like a computer, he just started falling asleep. But as he had almost swayed into a sleeping state he heard movement. Jon's eyes flew open and Eduardo had indeed moved; he had turned back onto his back and was rubbing his eyes. Jon became overjoyed to see Eduardo still being able to move, Jon put his hands on the mattress and looked at Eduardo searching for eye contact but Eduardo was still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. " _Why- what's that smell? Where am I?_ " Eduardo muttered and opened his eyes but kept them fairly squinted. "You're in my room; I didn't dare to leave you passed out on your bed so I asked Mark to put you in my bed." Eduardo looked in Jon's direction with slight confusion present in his facial expression. " _What happened?_ " Eduardo didn't remember anything... or maybe he did, he maybe just needed to be reminded of it? Maybe he switched off when his anger took over? Who knows?

"We almost got mugged in an alley but you kicked the baddies asses and they ran away like mice." The sound of Jon's voice seemed to soothe Eduardo. This was what friends were for, calming each other down and being there for one another when times would get harder. "I remember... Are you ok, Jon?" Jon was taken aback by the question and raised his eyebrows. Eduardo asking about the condition Jon was in was unusual... He had done so once or twice before this moment counting form waking up at the morgue but it was just as odd to hear it every time. "Yes, why wouldn't I be?" Eduardo drew a sigh of relief and closed his eyes again. "How are you feeling? You passed out yesterday and we didn't know if you would need medical attention or not." Eduardo frowned and sat up slowly; "No, I don't want to go to the hospital. I have bad memories associated with that place." Eduardo muttered, obviously hinting to the day he had to go to the morgue. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and made himself ready to stand up but Jon was quick to push Eduardo down. "Don't move yet!" Eduardo pushed Jon aside and stood up anyways; "Don't worry, it's not like standing up will kill me." Eduardo assured Jon but was visibly unsteady on his legs. "At least let me help you to the kitchen." Jon said and took Eduardo's left arm and hung it over his shoulders to support Eduardo's balance. "Ok, fine, what do you want for breakfast?" Eduardo asked, the hint of him still being prepared to make Jon's breakfast was too obvious. "Don't sweat it, Eduardo, I'll make it this time, what do you want?" Jon asked and lead Eduardo into the kitchen. "You don't need to do that for me." Eduardo said and was obviously troubled as it was apparent in his facial expression. "No, I insist, let me make it, you can barely stand if you haven't noticed." Eduardo finally gave in, there was no convincing Jon and he knew it. "Alright, nothing much, I'm not that hungry anyways, 2 roasted pieces of bread, diet coke, and a boiled egg." Jon put and egg into that little device they had that boiled eggs for them and put 2 slices of bread in the toaster. Jon lastly puts a diet coke in front of Eduardo and then started making breakfast for himself which consisted of some of the leftover waffles from yesterday's breakfast which he just heated in the microwave. Eduardo opened the can, drank some diet coke, put the can back down, then rested his right elbow on the surface of the table, and leaned his forehead at the palm of his right hand; "I feel hungover, what the hell is happening to my body?" Mark came into the kitchen wearing his fabulous bathrobe and deadpanned with: " **Seek immediate help.** " Eduardo needed a professional to check his body for any internal injury or sickness, they all knew that.

Eduardo hissed and stroked his cheek hard as if he was in a dilemma. "No, I don't trust doctors. You can't even imagine the picture I have in my head of what a doctor would do to my body." Mark took a banana from the fruit bowl and sat down on the other side of the table but not in front of Eduardo; "Humor me, I implore you." he said, peeled and bit off the tip of the banana. "Fine, I don't trust doctors because of the **_hospital massacre in Oregon 8 years ago_** *****." Eduardo said and sipped on the diet coke. "Oh please, Eduardo, that was so long ago, you don't even live there, and you need professional help." Mark said at this point half of the banana was gone. "No, I  don't." Eduardo persisted. "Yes, you do." Mark persisted back. "I don't want a medic I don't trust to analyze my body or cut it open. I don't want to have something taken out of or inserted into my bloodstream by a syringe. The sting I can take, but if the syringe they have used on another patient is then used on me then there'll be an infection wherever the syringe is used on me. All in all, I highly distrust medical professionals, not only because of the hospital massacre in Oregon but because I don't know them mostly. If you were the one to examine me, Mark, then maybe I would do it. I feel like I can trust you if even a little bit." Mark became really surprised at that statement, his eyes widened and eyebrows raised; "That is very unusual coming from you." Mark said and cocked his head to the side. "Don't get used to it, I don't know if I like being honest." Eduardo grumbled and sipped more on the diet coke. Eduardo had been honest now at least and it was all if not more than Mark could have asked for. Mark chuckled, stood up, and threw the banana peel in the garbage bin; "I'll go get the newspaper." He said and went in the direction of the entrance door to their house. Silence followed as Mark left the room.

Suddenly, as if no time had passed at all, Jon put 2 roasted slices of bread, the boiled egg in an egg cup (or whatever those things are called) together with a spoon at the side, butter, ham, and cheese all of which were toppings to the roasted bread slices in front of Eduardo and smiled. "Nice. Thank you, Jon." Eduardo said and started preparing the bread slices with butter. "You're welcome." Jon said and the joy of feeling accomplishment was written all over his face. Jon sat down in front of Eduardo with his plate of waffles in front of him together with a jar of strawberry jam and a small plastic box with the whipped cream that was left. They both dug in on their breakfast, Mark came back to the kitchen with the newspaper and a few letters, started reading the newspaper but no one ever said anything. Once more, a silence swept over them that wasn't awkward but more comfortable than anything, a soothing silence. Jon and Eduardo finished their meals and Jon decided to suggest to Eduardo what he had suggested to Mark last night. "If we can't bring you to a professional, then can we ask a professional to come here?" Eduardo didn't look away from his can of diet coke as he responded: "No, I'd rather not have anyone analyze or critique the health of my body. Whether I need to hear it or not, I simply can't trust anyone calling themselves a doctor or a _professional_ , I really, really can't." Jon's mood sank a bit and Eduardo saw that when he finally looked up at his friend at the other side of the table. "Fine, just this once I can maybe make an exception, but I will only do it if you and Mark tag along." Mark looked up from his newspaper with wide eyes and Jon squealed. "Wait, you will?" Mark asked, still baffled by what he had just heard. "Yes, but we have to follow him there, remember that." Jon said and rushed for the entrance door to put on his shoes. "Hold on, Jon, let me just finish my breakfast. I'm not going anywhere until I'm not hungry anymore." Eduardo said and started knocking on the side of the egg with the spoon to break the shell.

When Eduardo was done eating they all headed off to the hospital on foot. Surprisingly, Eduardo was steadier on his feet now so he didn't need Jon's aid walking. However, Jon was walking extra close to Eduardo in case he would need immediate support. They arrived at the hospital and asked for a check-up, headed over to the waiting room for the _minor problems_ section of the hospital and waited for their turn... Which was in all sense unnecessary because it was just them there... Jon looked around in the sterilized bright blue room they were in and then at Eduardo. It didn't look good and would probably not look any better no matter what angle Jon decided to look at Eduardo from. Eduardo looked like he was internally screaming; he really didn't seem to like hospitals. Since there was no one else in the room with them Jon would probably not feel weird if he attempted to initiate bodily contact with Eduardo to calm him down. Eduardo had his hands on his knees and clenched the fabric of his jeans in a stressed manner. Jon carefully put his hand on top of one of Eduardo's hands (the one that was closest to Jon himself) which caused Eduardo to flinch. Eduardo's and Jon's eyes met and after a few seconds had passed Eduardo had visibly calmed down. Eduardo smiled and nodded briefly to Jon; "Thanks, buddy." He said, looked back down on his knees and the tension left his shoulders and hands. Jon was relieved he had managed to ease Eduardo up a bit. Never in Jon's life, knowing Eduardo had he ever believed that he, Jon out of every person on the planet, would need to calm Eduardo down as well as being able to as well. Now, thinking about it, it only seemed to be anger that made Eduardo feel pain in his chest area, not joy or fear. Jon needed to remember this for later.

Realistically, it was Jon that needed all the attention, all the comforting, a psychiatrist, someone/something to remove as much responsibility from Jon's shoulders as possible, everything; but Eduardo was enough to cover all of those aspects that Jon needed, maybe that was what had caused Eduardo's health to start failing? The reality that Jon had found himself in was breathtakingly unrealistic and yet it felt so real. His ability to feel both mental and physical pain here was the only indications that proved everything around him being the actual reality. Eduardo acting overly friendly in comparison to how he usually acted before the morgue was... just almost unnerving, but it was at the very least pleasant. Jon had eavesdropped on Mark talking to Eduardo who were in the kitchen when they spoke about Jon and that he had almost been restored, how little time he had needed to become his usual self, and they should continue whatever they were doing and maybe attempt to do more of whatever worked so well. Eduardo had still a bad attitude towards others but had very noticeably changed his attitude towards his 2 other room-/housemates. And if this truly was Jon's utopia then he would never have to experience pain ever again, but since he had experienced some level of pain after the morgue at a few points in time then this couldn't be the utopia Jon had envisioned. Yes, Eduardo and Mark were better than ever before but this wasn't paradise. However, if the reality around Jon truly was the reality he had always existed in before he jumped off of a cliff then it just raised more questions; why was he still alive? Why were Eduardo and Mark suddenly nicer to him? What, when's, how's, and why's were placed in a seemingly endless list of questions. For now, though, everything was perfect.

Jon retracted his hand from Eduardo's hand when a doctor came into the waiting room and read aloud from a paper she was holding: "Eduardo." The trio stood up and the doctor raised an eyebrow to them; "Which one of you is Eduardo? I can't let you all come along." "This is Eduardo and he requested Jon and me to be present with him because he doesn't like hospitals and is highly distrusting of anyone who works at a hospital." Mark said and put his hand on Eduardo's shoulder when presenting/referring to the actual patient. "Very well, but don't touch anything and don't disturb me or Eduardo at any point during the examination." Jon made the thumbs up with both of his hands and smiled; "You got it, lady." He said and they all followed the doctor to a smaller room that consisted of a computer on a desk, 2 chairs and a cabinet on wheels beneath the desk (whatever those are called). "Take a seat and take off your shirt." She said and pulled out a stethoscope from a pocket on the inside of her lab-coat looking piece of clothing. Eduardo was just about to ask why but seeing the stethoscope it was pretty obvious she needed to listen to whatever sounds his chest would make without the sounds being interrupted by the rustling of fabric. Eduardo pulled off his shirts (the green and the white beneath the green one) and sat down at the empty chair closest to him. The doctor pulled the other chair closer, sat down, put on the stethoscope and held the cold flat knob against Eduardo's skin. Eduardo shivered and tensed up slightly, just the stethoscope made him extremely uncomfortable. Eduardo suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked up behind him and Jon stood there with a reassuring smile: _It's ok, it'll be over soon_ was written in his eyes and it was good enough to calm Eduardo down. "I don't know what you did but whatever you did; slowed Eduardo's pulse down to a calmer pattern and the breathing to a more regular pace..." The doctor muttered, removed the stethoscope and put it away. Just when everything was going well the doctor pulled out a syringe that was in a plastic package. Eduardo didn't like syringes, not because of the sting when the needle penetrated the skin but because of the liquid they would either insert into or take out of the bloodstream, but surprisingly Eduardo hadn't tensed up again. Probably because Jon still had his hand on Eduardo's shoulder.

"You said there was something in your chest that started hurting whenever you got upset according to the report I received. Your lungs aren't the problem. I just assume that you're not a smoker because your lungs sound fine, your heart has no problem either according to the stethoscope. However, if you have something in your blood that isn't supposed to be there, then there might be a problem with what you eat or with your genetics and DNA." Rambling more medical things only left the trio not understanding anything. "I'll be back soon, I'm going to take a look at this." She said and left the room with the syringe. "That wasn't so bad, right?" Jon asked and went back to stand with Mark by the wall and out of the way. "No... still didn't like it though..." Mark sighed and chuckled lightly; "You're such a baby." he said and shook his head. Eduardo snorted and put his shirts back on. "I don't need professional help to tell me how to live my life and so I avoid them altogether." The doctor came back into the room again without the syringe and stood with crossed arms in front of Eduardo: "Alright, _where_ does it hurt?" She asks and emphasizes the where in her questions. "Like, mostly around the heart area but also inside the entire ribcage." The doctor hummed and shrugged; "Then there is nothing the hospital can do for you, there is no documented disease that can explain your symptoms, your blood came out fine and you're not lacking in any nutrients." Eduardo narrowed his eyes and wrinkled his nose, the pain he had felt could not just have been _nothing_. Jon was overjoyed at this conclusion though, he was squealing and running in circles, and Eduardo didn't need to turn around to know that. "Isn't that good, Eduardo? You're not sick or dying!" Jon came out of nowhere and hugged Eduardo from behind. Eduardo snickered and shrugged; "Yeah, I guess, you'd probably be heartbroken otherwise." Jon rubbed his face in the fabric of Eduardo's green shirt before he let go and backed off, both Jon and Eduardo laughing at the funny atmosphere that had suddenly filled the room.

" _Are you 2 gay_?" That single comment was enough to kill the joy instantly. Mark, Eduardo, and Jon all started staring at the doctor as if she had just said that she loved abusing puppies. "What?! No, we're just friends." Eduardo said and Jon followed up with: "We're best friends, where would you get the idea of us being gay?" The doctor started laughing and waved dismissively at the 2 males; "No, no, it's nothing, this is just the first time I've seen 2 males being so close aside from homosexual men. All male friend groups I have ever seen have never shown that level of connection to each other before." Eduardo pointed at the doctor and deadpanned with: "Not a word about this to anyone. If you start spreading rumors I won't be nice the next time we meet." The doctor calmed her laughing fit, pulled the chair she had used to her and sat down in front of her computer; "Yeah, whatever, you can leave now, the examination is over." She said still with a smile. "Alright, let's leave then." Mark said and they all exited the building. Eduardo shivered as soon as they went out the doors and said: "I don't ever want to be back there." Jon sighed and looked down at his feet; "Hopefully we don't have to." He said and pursed his lips. Eduardo stopped suddenly as he just stared right in front of him: " _We_? You hope _we_ don't have to go back to the hospital?" Jon and Mark stopped too and turned towards Eduardo; Jon was afraid he might have offended Eduardo and Mark just remembered, Jon had never told Eduardo Jon might be ready to accept the world around him as the reality. "Go on Jon, tell Eduardo what you think of the world around you." When Jon heard that clarification, he realized what Eduardo was in a shock about. "I think I might be ready to think of everything around me to be rea-" Jon didn't manage to finish his statement before Eduardo pounced at him. Eduardo was laughing and embracing Jon tightly; " **WE DID IT MARK!** JON'S FINALLY BACK!" Across the street, 7 men were walking in construction worker suits observing the moment. "Those 2 are soo gay." One of them said loud enough for the trio to hear it. Eduardo glared at them, made a face and flipped them the bird (/gave the 7 men the middle finger for those of you who don't know). The 7 men just nonchalantly kept walking down the street and their voices became more unclear to make out because of the city.

"Don't mind them, Eduardo, let's just go home." Mark said and started walking again. Eduardo untangled his arms from Jon and they hurried to catch up with Mark. Their way home was uneventful but peaceful. Ever since Eduardo had decided to change for the better (mostly just to keep Jon alive), time had seemed to move at a snail's pace. Though, none of them really paid any mind or cared much for it. Why? Because if they had more time they could use that time to come up with something they could do or just relax. Maybe watch TV, a movie, take a nap, anything really. It was almost deafening how peaceful it was around them. Peaceful felt nice even if it could be a bit boring sometimes. When they had gotten home they had all simply gone straight to the kitchen. Believe it or not, they had entered the house at exactly 12 am sharp. "Time for lunch, it's already 12 am." Eduardo said and hummed as he inspected the position of the arms on the clock on the wall. "Yay! Food!" Jon said and clapped his hands together excitedly. Jon was a bit of a beginner at cooking food, Mark was good at cooking food in the home but he would rather read a book than cooking food, Eduardo was best in the home at cooking food since he always got to cook food for the others. Jon wasn't that interested in eating or making food and if Mark was left with doing the food he would end up serving them all yogurt and cereal because he couldn't care less. Besides, Eduardo got better every time he needed to cook food. The first time he ever cooked pancakes, for example, was when he and the others had just moved into their first house. Those were a bit dry and burnt in the middle but they were still pretty good, when he made pancakes today they were golden, soft in the middle and crispy at the edges. All in all; perfect.

"Alright gang, _what doth thee wisheth me to cook_?" Eduardo said in a medieval kind of way. "I don't really care." Mark said and shrugged. "Hmmm..." Jon began and crossed his arms. "How about-... fruit salad?!" Mark hummed and nodded; "Yes, why not?" Eduardo picked an orange, a pear, an apple, and a banana from the bowl of fruit by the kitchen window and started chopping them up. These last times they were out shopping Jon had requested them obtaining more fruit because of the taste and nutritional value that the fruit possessed. Thanks to Jon they all ate a lot more greens actually, fruit and vegetables. Usually, only Mark was the only one supportive of the vitamins and minerals, Eduardo supporting a lot of proteins and omega 3, lastly, Jon was the one promoting sweets such as carbs. Jon had a sweet-tooth but neither of the 2 other males really mentioned anything bad about it. Besides, Jon still hadn't put on any weight, neither in fat or any muscle mass. It was a bit worrisome since Jon ate a lot more now; it was as if the food simply passed through Jon's body without picking up on the nutrients in the food. Jon had also dropped the bulimia as if he had never had it in the first place. How did Mark and Eduardo know? Because they were around him too often for Jon to actually get a clear moment of visiting the bathroom and forcing up all of what he had previously eaten. In every aspect, Jon was making great improvement; the delusion dissipating, eating and drinking when and if he was hungry or thirsty, spending more time talking about interests and what he had been dreaming the previous night- just, EVERYTHING was making a huge amount of progress in recovering to who Jon was and even better.

Eduardo was doing some changes to himself also, why he did so was probably so that he could observe Jon every waking hour. They watched the program that Jon wanted to watch together even though the program would not be one that Eduardo would willingly watch himself if this occurred before Jon's suicide. They read books together and sometimes Eduardo read any book of Jon's choosing out loud for Jon. Eduardo sometimes took Jon to the gym in town and either trained Jon at a machine or joined Jon in the swimming pool playing with an inflatable beach ball. Eduardo could even sit down and doodle on a paper in Jon's room together with Jon. The list could go on and on, almost none of these activities were in Eduardo's interest but he would seemingly happily do them all with Jon. Mark smiled and kept on doing what he loved doing himself; reading an interesting book, writing on his own book, going out for long walks and a few other things but he didn't go out of his way to spend every waking moment with Jon. Eduardo did though. Why? Probably because Eduardo wanted to keep Jon happy to prevent the kid from becoming chronically depressed and attempt suicide again. While Mark was happy Jon was back, he wasn't going to do everything he disliked just to keep Jon alive. Eduardo was enough company to keep Jon happy anyway which was good, it meant that Mark could keep doing what he enjoyed doing and not having to worry about Jon.

Now, as long as Eduardo kept Jon happy, Eduardo was happy as well, which was good because his chest was in an awful lot of pain if he was to become upset in any way. Why that was none of them knew but none of them wanted to see what would happen if Eduardo would reach his limit of endurance. The nurse who came back with the results said that it was nothing to worry about but the trio had other thoughts. There had been a few instances every week where anything could make Eduardo just a little bit irritated. When that happened; he hissed, closed his eyes, bared his teeth, clutched at the fabric of his shirt, and the 2 other members of the trio would freeze. Only when Eduardo stopped his alarming behavior did Mark and Jon let go of a breath that neither of them knew that they had been holding. While a medical professional had called the occurring of the chest pain at anger a falsity, Jon and Mark still worried that their friend and _clan leader_ could potentially die if they weren't paying attention. They had been to the hospital and had the condition checked out, they had tried making their home as sterilized as the hospital to avoid any danger for Jon's sanity and Eduardo's mood. This all continued for 2 months and it was beginning to weight hard on all 3 of them. Eduardo had no problem with entertaining Jon, that was not the problem, but all of them acting as if they were treading carefully on a rope over Grand Canyon was the troublesome part. Jon could handle stress better now that he could rely on Eduardo to always help Jon through the ordeal, but this put a lot of pressure on Eduardo; to be there for Jon at all times and help Jon solve his problems was hard on Eduardo because he didn't have time to take care of his own demons. But Eduardo didn't mind it, if he could help Jon through it all until Jon was strong on his own he would, however, this all was slowly eating away on Eduardo's sanity. He couldn't leave Jon's side even for a second fearing that Jon would face a problem Jon wouldn't be able to handle himself or experience something horrific.

Eduardo was so scared of Jon losing his will to live again so much that he did everything in his power to prevent that from happening EVEN if that meant lowering his own standards of living. Eduardo could go an entire day without food or water just so that he could keep Jon safe. Whenever Jon was out of Eduardo's range of view Eduardo would become paranoid.

A new day; Eduardo and Jon were on their way in Eduardo's **new car**** to the lake outside of town for some fishing. It was Jon's idea as usual, but for him to want to go to some fishing was the unusual part. Jon didn't have any interest in fishing but it seemed that he wanted to try more things after the suicide, morgue, and revival, which was fine of course, Eduardo could tag along to experience it all if he could make sure Jon didn't _accidentally die_ while trying new things. Jon wanted to find something he was good at so he could impress Eduardo because Eduardo seemed to be good at anything he wanted to do. Whether it be; cooking food, playing any sort of sport, playing TV-games, ice skating, fishing- the list could go on and on and this was one of the many reasons Eduardo had always been Jon's idol. This was why Jon always tried impressing Eduardo. Jon wanted to be like Eduardo and if he could impress Eduardo then that would be another step of becoming like his idol. They stood at the shore and they had different fishing rods for the activity; Jon had a regular fishing rod while Eduardo had a casting rod. Eduardo was in a harmonic trance of swinging his rod over his head and observing his fishing lure flying through the air attached to the fishing line, colliding with the water in a silent splash and then he started reeling the lure back. Jon was carefully attaching worms to his hook and as he did Eduardo had one eye on his fishing lure and one eye watching Jon in case Jon would prick his finger on the hook. Jon didn't mind the silence that had engulfed the area, besides; they'd scare the fish away otherwise. Eduardo caught 3 big fishes with the casting rod but let them all back again, because, what were they going to do with 3 fishes? Keep them in an aquarium? Eat them? No, the fishes that he had caught were not known to be good for eating. Jon caught 12 small fishes but let them back into the water again because they were so small. He didn't want to take any fish from the lake, they still had a life and they could just mix anything together at home. Eduardo honestly though it was sweet of Jon to think so highly of any life at all, not only his roommates. The fish that Jon caught actually would taste nice in a stew, but they had other plans for dinner in the evening. There was no need to bring any of the fish with them. Fishing wasn't nice to the fishes but they didn't have to end up on the dinner table so that was a plus

Suddenly it started to rain and the 2 took shelter under a tree. It was the start of June and yet the summery weather hadn't been very-... summery... They sat there with their fishing gear beneath a protective branch of leaves shielding them from the pouring water. While, yes, they could hurry to the car and go home but sitting outside in the rain watching the rain was also pretty peaceful. "Eduardo?" Jon asked but kept looking out at the rain. "Yeah, what is it, Jon?" Eduardo answered, also captivated by the rain. "For how long is this going to last?" That single comment derailed Eduardo's thoughts and his calm mood spiraled down into despair. Was Jon still asking if Eduardo's actions were sincere? "I meant the rain." Jon had probably noticed Eduardo's change in facial expression/body language and clarified his question which eased Eduardo up a bit. "I think it'll last-... maybe until nightfall." Eduardo said and looked at Jon, their eyes met, Jon sighed and looked out at the water; "Could we stay until it gets dark?" Eduardo smiled and turned his gaze to the water again. "Yeah, we can if you want to." Not too long afterward, Jon fell asleep, Eduardo noticed and chuckled; "If you sleep on the ground you'll have a sore back when waking up. Come on, I'll take you home." He mumbled, brought Jon to the car, got the rest of their things as well, started the car, and headed home on the slippery roads. It was as calm and peaceful as it had been at the lake and the entire day had evoked a sense of calm in Eduardo that he had never felt. Before all of the drama and crazy shit that went down, he was living a pretty risky life. To once in a while relax and not think so much was really refreshing. Eduardo could imagine his life before all the drama and he couldn't really say that he was longing for it. Also, they didn't come into neighbor-feuds at all anymore with Edd, Matt, and Tom, so that was good too. Eduardo rolled up in the driveway to their house and packed the things out of the car, lastly, he carried Jon bridal style to Jon's bedroom. After putting Jon on the mattress he killed the lights, rolled the blinds over the window in his room, and shut the door after he had gone out of the room to give his sleeping friend privacy.

"The doctor was right, you know? You 2 appear a bit gay, Eduardo." Mark said, standing, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. "Yeah, yeah, what was I supposed to do? Leave him asleep in the car?" Eduardo asked and raised an eyebrow. "No need to be so hostile, I'm just teasing." Mark said and snickered as he went to the kitchen. Eduardo looked at the door behind him to Jon's room; he couldn't help but feel worried for some reason. Every time Jon was not in Eduardo's view Eduardo found himself becoming worried about Jon's wellbeing. The drama some time back had probably traumatized Eduardo more than it should have and kept eating away at Eduardo's sanity as well as his rational thinking. Not that Eduardo had any rational thoughts but he felt himself losing his head figuratively every time he was unaware of what was happening to Jon or what Jon was doing. Eduardo sighed and went back to his room, he looked around and it was as untidy as it could ever be. Since Eduardo's mind was always clouded with thoughts about Jon nowadays he didn't have much time left to tidy up his room. Now that he had time, did he have energy enough to clean up? Eduardo shrugged and put things in their rightful place so that his room looked _somewhat_ clean. He still needed to use the vacuum cleaner but the loud noise of the machine would wake Jon so Eduardo decided against it for the moment. He went to the kitchen and checked the analog clock on the wall and the arms pointed at 5.10 pm. Eduardo hummed and decided to start preparing dinner since it could take some time depending on if he decided to make a salad, a soup, or fry some meat in a skillet. "What's for dinner?" Mark asked from behind a newspaper that he was reading. Eduardo looked through the freezer and spotted a package of minced meat. "Well, we could make lasagna." Mark looked up from the newspaper and put the paper object away; "Do you need help with that?" He asked and stood up. "Nah, I'm capable of that myself, thank you for offering your help though." Eduardo said, looked at Mark over his shoulder and sneered; "I'm going to add an ingredient to the recipe, don't ask which though, you'll just have to see when it's finished." Mark shrugged and left the kitchen. Eduardo chuckled and held the secret ingredient in his hands. " _Their mouths will burn_."

Jon woke up in his own bed and looked around. It was dark but he managed to make out light at the sides of his blind by the window. It was still daytime or early evening. The sun was still up but it might still be raining. He stood up and approached the window. He pulled up the blinds and it was indeed still raining. He checked his alarm clock by the nightstand that read 6 pm. Jon reminded himself that it was probably time for dinner and went to the kitchen where Mark was placing plates, cutlery, and glasses on the table ready for use. "Oh, what's for dinner?" Jon asked and picked out a diet coke for Eduardo and put it on the table where Eduardo was usually sitting as well as a can of water for him and Mark. Jon put out a heat coaster on the table because something was in the oven and not on the stove; if it had then he'd have to put out more heat coasters on the table. Jon sat down on the chair that he usually sits on, poured some water into his glass and waited patiently for the food to be done. He didn't have to wait long because the timer beeped and Eduardo took something smoking hot out of the oven. "Dinner is served." He said and put the lasagna on the heat coasters since the form was too big for one to fit. They all took a portion and started eating; "Good lord, Eduardo- is the extra ingredient you added ghost pepper?!" Mark said and his face started getting red because of how spicy it was. "Nah, it is Tabasco sauce. Why are you acting like that? This is fairly tame compared to the ghost pepper." Eduardo finally took notice to the can of water on the table. "I'm just going to warn you once, drink water and it will be 10 times worse." Jon ate his piece in peace, he was also getting a bit red but he was either not feeling it as much as Mark or he was just good at covering it up. "Alright, how much Tabasco did you add?" Mark asked and kept eating but pausing to keep his mouth open a few instances to cool the heat in his mouth; "Oh, you know, not much, like, 7 spoons of it at the very least, maybe more." Eduardo said and calmly kept eating the food from his plate. Mark got some of his chewed food stuck in his throat and started coughing. "Excuse me; you added 7 _or more_ spoons of Tabasco if I heard you correctly?" Eduardo swallowed and nodded: "Yeah, the reason you find it that spicy is because you and Jon don't usually eat spicy food. Since I was out by myself a lot before I ate at this Indian restaurant. Their food is SPICY, like; holy shit! This is pretty tame in comparison. It was as if I ate burning coal at that place, it was THAT hot." They all knew that _before_ meant before all of the drama that changed them all but they all refrained from bringing it up. Since they all understood what it meant, there was no need to talk about it.

They watched _Pet Detective Ace Ventura_ after the dinner, browsed through the TV-channels and stopped at AFV. When they were tired enough, they changed from their daily clothing to their nightwear, brushed their teeth, said goodnight, and went to bed. Relaxation was good once in a while; the question was for how long it would last though. Eduardo crossed his arms behind his head and sighed as he gazed up at the ceiling. He had a bad feeling about the next day for some reason.

* * *

/Yeeeeah, this was probably a little bit of a boring chapter, I needed this though to build up to the next, but, hey, it was LONGER than the last! YAY! XD I know Eduardo is kind of soft in this chapter, but, hey, he has to for now and I will explain later. X3

I should probably explain the Alpha/Beta/Omega concept as the way I understand it for those who don't know (which I doubt are many anyways):  
1) Alpha, the leader

2) Beta, vice leader/second in command

3) Omega, not in any position/worker ant or something like that

This is how I understand the Alpha/Beta/Omega positions in a group (there was an article of this about wolf packs not actually having an alfa/beta/omega system but the one who would be considered _alpha_ actually starting the new pack. The _alpha_ is a wolf that was kicked out from its former pack and started a new one. But here, I'm taking the concept of alpha/beta/omega and just use it as a status in power grading system). Feel free to correct me; I'd love to understand more of it. But as of right now anyway; this is how it's going to look. Eduardo is the alpha, Mark the beta and Jon the omega in their pack of 3 members. I know the Alpha/Omega universe in romantic situations from a friend who explained it to me but I don't know if I should apply it here... besides, I don't think I'd want to have Jon becoming pregnant... I strongly dislike writing/reading male pregnancy...

I will explain why Eduardo has chest problems in another chapter if I'd explain it now there would be no tension! X3 Also, I have a question, does anybody know what Jon, Eduardo and Mark's surnames are?

Also, I write small facts in the text instead of here in my notes because I don't think my readers want to go ALL THE WAY DOWN here to read a short comment and then trying to find their way back to where they were earlier. Explanations and facts are sometimes needed to be immediately after they are brought up I believe.

ALSO also, I was ORIGINALLY going to have Jon being the one to have a long recovering time, but I then realized that Eduardo probably was heavily traumatized by what he saw at the cliff and I simply couldn't have BOTH Jon and Eduardo being emotional train wrecks so I left Eduardo as the one taking more time to recover. Jon is in good hands so he can let his guard down. He recovers faster because he's simply delusional the first weeks, thinking of the reality as a dream or the afterlife is what's having him recover faster or something. Everything is suddenly sunshine and rainbows around him and his abusive roommate Eduardo is now everything Jon had ever wanted Eduardo to be. I simply find it less likely for Eduardo to recover quickly when he isn't delusional and/or can rely on some kind of insanity or something after he had seen Jon's dead and decaying body in the water. It's just not possible for me.

*I made this event up, so don't bother to look it up. I just made this up for the sake of the plot.

**About the car... it was a dark blue Dodge RAM 1500. I don't know where the characters actually get their money from so I just simply assume their money pop into existence for them to use... I have a job and I know where and how to earn money, but since neither of the trios has jobs; their money must just magically appear out of nowhere... It makes no sense to me... and don't tell me the bank _gives_ them money. No bank I know of _gives_ their customers _free_ money (while, yes they do, but on a rather small level in comparison to wage you get from a job). You earn money and then you take that earned money out from your bank account when you need them. This all-... makes no sense to me... Also, there's no talk about a driver's license, like- EVER! So I'm not too sure money has that much value in this universe, nor does a driver's license.


End file.
